


Just an Everyday Psychic Kid!

by PrincessLuigi



Category: Mother 1 | EarthBound Zero | EarthBound Beginnings, Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushuu | EarthBound, Mother 3
Genre: "oh hi i'm Picky Minch" "OH MY PORK", ...Ginten., After everything happened, Character Death, Chimeras, Choices, Jeff is smart, Just Punch Pokey if you see him., Magicant, Mother 3 Spoilers, Ninten is quiet, Onyx Hook, Paula just wants her teddy bear, Porky is Porky, Spoilers in general, Teddy's cool, Why can't Kumatora and Claus just get along long enough to put on one play?!, Why do all my tags have an edgy ?! at the end of them?!, Why does Tracy have to ruin everything?!, all 3 games used, claus is funny, fassad is rude, i want mother 4 now, its not ken its ninten, lloyd is still a weakling, ness wants to be normal, there's a school in fourside, using fanon family ideas because why not, who names a kid after their last name?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2019-11-16 07:10:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 47,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18089753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessLuigi/pseuds/PrincessLuigi
Summary: Ness is just a normal kid, right? I mean, sure he, saved the world from certain doom, and maybe he's teleported all over the world, and sure, he's been in the past but... he can still be normal, right? Or not... When Ness tries to move and go to a new school, with a new start, he soon realizes just how hard it is for him NOT to stick his nose where it doesn't belong. Like his new friend Claus is kinda weird, and his teacher is just REALLY mean and careless, and Lloyd, well, he reminds him way to much of Jeff. And is it just Ness, or is something crazy wrong with Claus? Ness knows somethings going on here, and he WILL get to the bottom of it, even if it means giving away that he's not just your run of the mill student.





	1. Monkey for a Teacher

“How much longer do I need to just sit here and watch? I want to join them too! I’m so bored…”

“Just a little longer… then you can have all the fun you want.”

“Fine…”

 

~~~

 

A new day at a new school. Sounds pretty nerve racking already. But it didn’t help that Ness wasn’t just here because of something simple like moving, although that was part of it. Ness’ mom insisted that they moved soon after what happened, so Ness couldn’t have any ties to anything that had happened. It was a shame, but Ness understood.

Ness walked onto the courtyard where all the other kids were, and tried to settle down for a moment. He sat on a bench next to a trash can, but it started crying. But trash cans don’t cry under regular circumstances, so Ness decided to open it instead. He looked inside, and to his relief, there was really someone in there, and he didn’t just imagine it. But, there was really someone in there, so Ness figured there was something wrong.

“Hello?”

“Go away!”

Okay, so there really was someone really RUDE in there. “What’s your deal?”

The person in the trash can came out just a little bit, just enough for Ness to see his big round glasses covering red eyes. Creepy. “You know, why don’t I just leave you alone.” Ness placed the lid back on top of the trash can, and acted like that didn’t happen. He came here to be normal, not to deal with this. He was about to get up, but then someone jumped on to the bench, and then the trash can, then a bird bath, then to the roof of the school. He climbed up, and stood up there, waving.

“Claus! Get down from there!” A kid with yellow hair and a red and yellow striped shirt ran towards the kid on the roof.

The kid on the roof, apparently named Claus, told him “No way! You should join me Lucas, it’s fun up here!”

The kid Lucas looked terrified, but that’s when a teacher eating a banana in some sort of desert wear approached. “You! Get down here now!”

It looked like Claus was about to decline, but Lucas then said “Claus, you should really listen to him…” Claus looked at the teacher, then his playful expression quickly changed to fear, and he jumped down. When Ness got a closer look, this one looked very similar to Lucas, except his hair was orange, and one of his eyes were red instead of blue. He also wore long sleeves and some gloves, despite the fact it was really hot out. Weird.

The teacher yelled “Remember the position your in. Your not here to have fun.”

Claus rolled his eyes and sighed. “Having fun can be part of it… I still gotta be human sometime…”

The teacher shook his head. “Wrong choice of words. Now, either start doing what you're supposed to, or that freedom you’ve been enjoying will soon come to an end.” Ah. So this was a weird kid with a weird background. Okay. Ness made a mental note never to talk to him or that teacher, and probably not even Lucas, who he assumed was Claus’ twin. That’s when the bell rang, and Ness went inside for for his first day at this new school, where he desperately hoped he could go about making friends without it having to be fated to happen.

Ness sat down in the exact middle of the classroom. Plenty of room for people to surround him so he didn’t stand out, and a perfectly normal place to sit. However, Claus sat right next to him, and didn’t waste a second to talk to him. Just great. This’ll be a loooooong year. “Hey, I’m Claus, nice to meetcha!”

Ness didn’t want to stand out, so he certainly didn’t want to ask this kid to move, even if he wished he blended in more. “Hey, I’m Ness.”

Claus smiled at him, then said “Hey, did you see me on the roof? It was awesome!” You know, maybe having this kid around wouldn’t be so bad. He drew a lot of attention to himself, so maybe that would make Ness seem more normal in comparison.

“Yeah… that was crazy. You could’ve gotten yourself killed!”

“You sound just like my brother…” So that WAS his brother. Good to remember. But Ness just had to ask.

“What happened to your eye, anyway?”

Claus’ expression went from cheerful to surprised, then quickly back to cheerful. “Oh… umm… it’s a long story. Don’t worry though! I’m not like, a vampire or something!” Ness wanted to learn more about it, but he heard an all-too-familiar voice behind him.

“Ness… hey. I didn’t know you went here.”

Ness turned around to be face to face with Picky Minch. Why couldn’t he just stay away from everything? “Picky? What are you doing here? Don’t you still live near Onett?”

“Oh! No, not anymore! Mom wanted to move somewhere ‘more refined and dignified’, so here we are. Not sure how this is any more refined OR dignified, but I’m glad to see a familiar face!”

Claus turned to Picky and smiled. “Hey, I’m Claus! What’s your name?”

Picky smiled back with a “I’m Picky Minch. Nice to meet you!”

But Claus’ face, and all around energy just changed quickly. “Minch?”

“Umm… yeah…. I, umm…. I’m not like the rest of my family though.”

Claus stood up, and litarily bowed. “I will do anything for you, even if it puts my own life at risk. I am at your command.” Okay… sounded like a robot.

Picky looked scared more than anything. “You… don’t need to do that… really. Just, umm… be yourself? I’m going to go sit over there now.” Picky quickly ran over to one of the empty chairs in the back, and Claus stood up and sat in his chair, and didn’t act like anything just happened at all. 

The bell rang for class to start, and Ness realized the rest of the desks filled up when he dealt with that fiasco. Then the teacher that had yelled at Claus in the courtyard walked in. Anyone who was talking instantly got silent when he entered the room. He just had a creepy vibe to him. Sorta like Liar X… never mind. Claus rolled his eyes. “Is there a problem you would like to share with the class, Mr. Tazmily?”

Claus considered it for a second, and then answered, “Yes, there is. When’s the teacher coming in? All I see is a big fat monkey.” The whole class erupted into laughter.

“You’ll be seeing me after class, Mr. Tazmily.”

“Where, the zoo?” More laughter.

“That is eno-”

“What will I be doing? Supervising you to make sure you don’t eat your own poop?”

Lightning struck in the distance. “That is ENOUGH! One more PEEP out of you and I will…”

“Peep.”

“COMMANDER! HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE SO IMMATURE?”

“You think I’m immature… yet I’m your commander now? I’ve always wanted to work with animals! Thanks! I know it gives good pay and…” 

The teacher looked like he’d about had it. In fact, he walked right back out the door, and into the hall.

“Well, guess I’m in charge of class now.” Claus walked up to desk in the front of the class, sat down, and put his feet up on the desk. “Well how’s everyone feeling about their first day at school? Mine’s been pretty eventful. They let a monkey loose on school property, and it went crazy on everyone. Luckily I was able to take it down though.” The class was in hysterics! Maybe… Ness could actually be okay with this guy always drawing attention to himself. Afterall, being friends with the most popular kid in school will hopefully make Ness seem uninteresting by result.

The teacher came back into the classroom. “I had to make a phone call. Mr. Tazmily, I think you have done enough. Please, sit down and don’t act up anymore.”

Claus just looked at him. “Your gonna have to try harder than that!”

“I thought so.” The teacher took out a remote of some sorts, and Claus actually looked scared. The teacher gave a terrifying smile, and pushed it. Claus, who gasped, looked for a moment that he might be in pain, but then Claus got a completely blank look on his face, stood up, went back to his desk, and sat down. Just like that, without a second thought. But something was wrong. His back was straight, and he looked completely artificial, just looking straight at the front blankly, almost as if he felt absolutely nothing at all. The teacher seemed pleased with this.

“So, if anyone else wants to interrupt…” Nobody moved. “I’m Mr. Fassad, your new teacher. It’s great to see all of you. Also, I’d like to remind you all, that you will _not_ be misbehaving in my class, ever again. I am in charge of this class, not you. I’m also in charge of detention, so if any of you _do_ misbehave, I will learn how to deal with all of you. One by one. Also, now’s your chance to get out of that trash can before I throw a bag of trash in there.”

Ness looked in the back of the class, and noticed there was a trashcan in the back. Trashcan Kid from earlier stuck his head out of the trashcan. “What’s your name?” Fassad spat. The kid muttered something quietly. “I ASKED you what your name was.” Ness still couldn’t make it out, and apparently the teacher couldn’t either because he went over, and picked the kid up by his shirt, and held him in front of the entire class.

When he did, Mr. Fassad grabbed something out of his pocket, some sort of toy gun? “I’ll be taking this.”

“No! I need it… I”

“So you _can_ talk.”

“Yes… now give it back! What if I run into danger?”

“You're lucky it’s just an air gun, because if it was a real one, you’d be expelled on the spot. Now, tell me your NAME!”

“...Lloyd Andonuts…”

Andonuts…? Gosh, that made Ness miss Jeff Andonuts more than ever. But were they related in some way? Ness guessed they looked somewhat similar, but Jeff never said anything about a brother. Ness wondered what sort of adventures Jeff must be going on right now… riding Tessie, fighting monsters, building things with his dad…  Ness felt a pang of jealousy. He missed his friends, and he missed his old life, and trying to blend in sucks! Why couldn’t he just tell anybody… oh wait, things are happening.

Mr. Fassad was still holding this Lloyd kid by his shirt, and carried him over to the desk next to Ness that Picky would have taken. “This is your new spot. I expect to see you here everyday.”

Lloyd looked like he was about to cry. Or at least, Ness thought so. He’d gotten used to reading people’s expressions while they’re wearing glasses, but he doesn’t actually know this kid enough to be sure. Ness really wished he didn’t have to be right there though, because the more Ness looked at Lloyd, the more he saw Jeff, and the more he wished he could talk to Jeff again, hang out, maybe save the world again, things like that. But nope. This kid seemed like he couldn’t save a container of food, much less the world. He probably had nothing to do with anything.

Then Ness heard a phone ringing. “I’ve got to take this. Don’t do anything stupid, or I’ll know.” And Mr. Fassad left the classroom.

The whole class erupted into conversation again. Ness just couldn’t help but at least talk to Andonuts though. “Hey… Lloyd, right?”

Lloyd looked like he wasn’t going to talk to Ness at all, but then he looked over and got an excited look on his face. “Ninten? Ninten! I never thought I’d see you again! What’ve you been up to?”

“...I think you have the wrong person… I’m Ness.”

“...Oh...sorry. I thought you were someone I knew. You look just like him, and I haven’t seen him in a long time, and I miss him a lot.”

Ness gave a little smile. “It’s okay.” After all, Ness felt the exact same way, though he wasn’t going to say it. Why does moving on hurt so much? Then Ness heard himself say this before he even thought it through. “Do you know anyone named Jeff? Maybe a brother or something?”

Lloyd gave Ness a weird look, then Ness covered his mouth. “Umm… nevermind, don’t worry about it.” Oh crap.

“No… I don’t have a brother named Jeff…” It looked like Lloyd was thinking of his words, very, very, carefully. Then Lloyd gasped. “Wait! You’re THAT Ness?” Oh no. “I’ve seen you _everywhere_! In the movies, on pictures and posters, everywhere! You’re the one that…” Lloyd’s voice trailed off, with a brand new look of shock in his eyes. “Sorry, wrong person.” And he turned away. He can’t possibly know anything! Can he?

Ness looked over at Claus for the first time in a while, and he noticed he was still paying full attention to the front. “Hello?” Ness tried to get his attention, but it was in vain. He was still like a doll posed to be perfect. Ness grabbed his shoulders, and tried to shake him awake, but it seemed to have no effect. Except, Claus turned to look right at Ness, and it was freaking creepy! His eyes were like a doll’s staring right through him.

Lloyd got up, and walked over to Claus. “Hey, commander, you okay?”

Claus kept staring at Ness. Then he said, in a monotone voice, “Target acquired. ‘Best Friend’ located. You will come with me.” Claus grabbed Ness’ arm tightly and stood up. He firmly pulled Ness, and started dragging him towards the door. Ness quickly threw him off, instincts coming before thoughts. He took out his baseball bat, about to swing it, when he realized what it was he was doing. He quickly dropped the bat, but Lloyd ran up and litarily tackled Claus down to the ground.

“Commander, I’m sorry about this!” Lloyd slapped Claus across the face, jumped up, and ran back to his seat, muttering something about “I’m sorry” and “Not very scientific…”

Claus blinked a couple times, as if waking up from a weird dream. “Hey… why am I on the ground near the door?” Ness picked his bat off the floor, and quickly put it away before anyone could ask anything about it. Then the door opened again.

“What are you two doing?” Ness heard a familiar voice. He saw that, lucky him, Mr. Fassad had come into the classroom JUST as this was resolved. But Claus didn’t seem scared of him anymore. In fact, he seemed furious.

Claus walked right up to Mr. Fassad, and picked HIM up by his shirt. The entire class oohed and awed. This little kid, who couldn’t have been much older than Ness, picked someone up who must have been at least 200 pounds with one hand without even breaking a sweat. “I told you not to mess with me. Remember your place, Locria. I am your commander, and you are to do whatever I tell you to.” He then threw Mr. Fassad across the classroom at the wall, and sat down as if nothing happened. “So, are we going to actually learn anything today, or are we just going to keep arguing?”

And that’s when the bell rang, and it was time for lunch. So much for class… maybe this year will be a bit more eventful than Ness first thought. He wasn’t sure if he was scared that his secret would get out, or happy, because of there was obviously something interesting going on behind the scenes, and he just couldn’t help but become an important part of it.

 

~~~

 

“It’s getting interesting… you sure I can’t be a part of it?”

“Like I said, soon. Things are being prepared for you. Just be a little patient, and we’ll both get what we want.”

“Okay, okay, but I’m not waiting forever!”

“Have some patience, and it’ll soon be ready.”


	2. Is that an Adventure? Oh, no, no it's not.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It never is, is it?

Are you done playing with your toys? We have actual work to do today.”

“You mean YOU have actual work? You never let me do anything!”

“Maybe because you DON’T do anything. Not to mention, you’ve proven how easy it is to take you down.”

“...”

 

~~~

 

Ness followed the huge crowd of people to the lunch room, and sat down at a relatively empty table to see who would come to him, because he knew that whoever wanted to sit next to him would do so anyway, because it’s never really been up to him before. He opened his lunchbox to find steak and a heartfelt “welcome to school” note.

Picky quickly rushed over to sit next to Ness. “Hey Ness! Sorry I left you earlier, but your friend just seemed kind of… I don’t know…”

Before Ness could respond, Ness over heard Claus’ twin saying “Hey, why don’t we sit over there?”

Claus looked over, smiled, but then quickly frowned. He said “Why don’t we sit over here instead?” and quickly pulled Lucas in a different direction. Great, Picky is friend repellant.

“I think he’s afraid of me…” Picky said sadly.

“I honestly don’t know why he’s always running from you.” Ness told him.

“I don’t know… Why don’t I just… go sit somewhere else…” And Picky got up and left. Great. Now Picky repelled any chance of friendship, and then left Ness alone. Sigh… At least, he was alone, until someone who looked just like him sat across from him. The kid didn’t say a word, just opened his lunch box and pulled out some prime ribs. Fancy. However, Lloyd ran up to him.

“Ninten! Hey! So you did make it here!” So that’s how Lloyd thought he was Ninten. Ninten looked exactly like him. Ninten looked at Lloyd, and gave something of a smile. Lloyd sat down next to him, and Ninten didn’t really say anything to him. Quiet.

So Lloyd started talking to Ness instead. “Ness, this is Ninten. Ninten, this is Ness, one of my classmates this year. He’s actually been really nice to me!” Ness didn’t remember doing anything especially nice, but he’ll take it.

Ness had to ask Lloyd something that had been bothering him for a little while. “Hey, Lloyd. Mr. Fassad called Claus by the name Commander, and so did you. Not to mention, you seemed to understand what was going on with him when he went all… weird. So, do you know something I don’t?”

This got Ninten’s attention now. Lloyd stuttered “Umm… no…?”

Then Ninten said one word, in a very straightforward way. It was so straightforward that Ness couldn’t help but believe that Ninten knew exactly what he was talking about.

“Liar."

 Lloyd flinched, as if he didn’t expect Ninten to say anything at all. Ninten then went on to say “Answer the question.” Ness wished he could speak like that. The ability to say so little, yet sound so authoritative that everyone would listen would have come in handy when… well… he didn’t really want to think about all of that right now. Ness started to regret opening a can of worms he couldn’t help but dive deeper into. But before Lloyd could answer, Claus returned.

“Hey Ness, sorry about… everything that happened earlier. I just wasn’t… feeling very well at the time. But now I feel fine! By the way, I’d like you to meet my brother!” Claus’ twin brother walked up behind him. “Ness, this is Lucas. Lucas, this is Ness.”

Lucas waved happily as Ness, but then his eyes flashed in recognition. “Are you that kid that was..”

Claus stifled a laugh. “I’m pretty sure you owe him something, Lucas.”

Lucas looked confused, and Ness was terrified. What did these people know? Ninten then pushed Lloyd lightly for attention, then said “Explain.”

Lloyd looked wide-eyed to Lucas, who looked wide-eyed to Claus, who was outright laughing at this point. Then Claus said “I’m almost positive that’s the one.”

“The one who what?” Ness burst out, until he realized he didn’t really want the answer to be said out loud. But why would these three know rather than anyone else, when he’s never met these three in his life. Yes, some people were aware of certain things he did, but if it went to such extreme common knowledge, why wasn’t he aware, and why weren’t more people asking him about this.

It was Lloyd who finally answered. “You’re ‘Best Friend’, aren’t you?”

“Who’s best friend?”

Lucas blurted out “Now I remember!” and he pulled something out of his pocket. It was Ness’ favorite yoyo! “I think this belongs to you!” Ness took the yoyo and put it in his backpack.

“Where did you find this?”

“Lil’ Miss Marshmallow was protecting it...”

“Who?”

“Oh! A robot… on Thunder Tower!”

“Thunder Tower?”

“It’s a… place. A place on Nowhere Islands.”

“Nowhere Islands?”

Ninten was the one to bring the conversation back to its original topic, with the most words Ness ever heard him say. “Lloyd, you never explained why you call Claus your Commander.”

“Oh! ...Umm...”

Claus good-natured expression quickly went away. “That doesn’t really matter, now does it?” Lucas looked a little nervous.

“Claus, maybe we should go back and eat our lunch before it gets cold…”

But Claus had already returned to his playfulness. “It’s already cold. We literally had ice packs in our lunch boxes!”

“Well… we should still go eat.”

“Alright.”

And the somewhat awkward quietness returned, but Ninten didn’t look satisfied. “Well?”

Lloyd paused, then stuttered. “W-w-well… I can’t really…”

“Lloyd, tell me.”

“Okay! You see… I know him. And umm… we did this thing, and for it, we called him the Commander, and it just kinda stuck. That’s all!”

“What was this ‘thing’?”

“Oh, you know, just… hey! You and Ness look really similar. Why is that?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“Well… we kinda hung out for a long period of time. Really long. I got to know him very, VERY well. I know the insides and outs of him, you know.”

“...” Ninten was silent. Guess that very confusing answer was enough. Maybe they’re just close friends, and it’s just a nickname? Ness was going to go with that.

~~~

“So, are we going to make our move today or not?”

“At this point, it’d be better to until tomorrow. THEN we’ll make our move. All the puzzle pieces will be in place. Just wait until then.”

“Ugh, tomorrow? But that’s such a long time from now!”

“How long were you waiting until I found you?”

“Not the point.”

~~~

All of the kids in his class went back to the classroom to await further time with Mr. Fassad. Even though, the more Ness thought about it, he never really actually addressed the class much as all so far. But Ness could tell by the mischievous smile on Claus’ face that he wasn’t done messing around. So Ness was surprised when Mr. Fassad came back with a cart full of canvasses and art supplies.

“This school year, mornings are reserved for academics, while afternoons are meant to be for other classes for… job readiness. Due to Fourside Academy being a private school, I can’t take afternoon classes away from even the most…” he looked dead at Claus, “troublesome students. Today we are meant to be painting. Just… paint something interesting you’ve seen before. But don’t be an eyesore. Think of it as a challenge. Whoever’s been to the most interesting places and can paint them the best, they’ll win a prize or whatever. Just don’t make a mess.” And Mr. Fassad stepped out of the classroom again. Great.

Ness had been so many interesting places, but he had to paint something a normal person would have seen. As everyone rushed up to the front to pick out the best paints and canvases, Ness had to stop and think for a moment. The Cave of the Past would be too much, and so would any “Your Sanctuary” locations. So where? Claus and Lloyd had already gotten their supplies and started painting. Lloyd’s looked about as good as a five year olds, but Claus was actually pretty accurate, as it looked just like a photograph.

Ness thought about it for a moment. An interesting place that anyone could go to? That sounded like Saturn Valley! It stands out, a lot, but anyone COULD find it, if they were looking. Even though the Mr. Saturns helped get Ness to the past…

“Hey Ness!” Ness looked over at Claus, who was already almost finished!

“Yeah?”

“You know you can start painting now.”

Ness realized he’d been staring off into space for the last five minutes, so he had to decide now or he’d just look weird and boring. So he got some paint and a canvass, and started painting Saturn Valley. He didn’t really remember how ridiculous it all looked until after he finished. Whoops. His picture seemed to catch Claus’ eye though. The creepy red one, but it got his attention. He just burst out laughing!

“You’ve seen them too?” he asked, between laughter.

Okay, phew. At least the weirdest kid in the class knows the Mr. Saturns are real. “Yeah, I saw them a long time ago.”

“They’re really funny aren’t they? After just an hour there, everyone kept saying ‘boing’ and ‘Dakota’ at the end of their sentences! Then they’d try to apologize each and every time! Fassad was furious too! Especially when he started doing it himself!”

“Yeah… wait, everyone? Who? Did you know Mr. Fassad before school?”

“I don’t think that’s really important right now. What is is the Mr. Saturns and their crazy manner of speaking!”

That’s when Mr. Fassad came back in. “Times up. Hopefully at least one of you painted something worthwhile.” Not very encouraging, are you? “Why don’t we start with something promising. Mr. Tazmily, you’re up first.”

Claus smirked at Mr. Fassad, then walked up with his painting. It looked like a really old fashioned village, but as seen from like, the top of the world or something. Ness hasn’t ever seen it, but if he had to guess, Claus got every detail perfectly. Like a machine or something.

“I said the most INTERESTING. Not the most boring.”

Claus glared at Mr. Fassad. “Including everything I’ve ever seen, this IS the most interesting. If you have a problem with my judgement, talk to me after class.” ...Did he just pick a fight with the teacher?

“Fine, let’s move on. You in the red cap. Your turn.” The one in the red cap, AKA Ness, walked up front. But so did someone else. It seems Ninten was in this class all along, just very, very, quietly. Even Lloyd looked surprised. Mr. Fassad rolled his eyes. “Fine, you first.” He pointed at Ness, who turned his around. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t awful. Paula probably could have done better, but ignoring any thoughts of anyone he may or may not know, it was alright. “Just… just go sit down.” Mr. Fassad told him. Guess the teacher doesn’t approve of weird creatures that say boing, Alright.

“Is yours any better?” Mr. Fassad asked Ninten.  Ninten then showed his off to the class. It was a weird pink castle made of seashells. ...Ness wasn’t sure how to react to that. It seemed Mr. Fassad wasn’t either. “...What’s your name?”

“Ninten Montague.”

Oh. Montague. Great. Apparently Ninten was Ness’ third cousin or something.

“Ninten… oh. Oh my pork. Oh my PORK! ...Class dismissed. Ninten wins. I’ll… give you a prize tomorrow.” And Mr. Fassad was gone. Okay…

Lloyd ran up to Ninten. “I didn’t know you were in this class! I should’ve thought of painting Magicant!”

“...Magicant?” Ness wished he didn’t say that.

“Yeah! Ninten’s great grandmother Mar-” Ninten covered Lloyd’s mouth and dragged him off.

Magicant? But… Magicant was only Ness’ mind, right? It didn’t look like that…

There was still 10 minutes left of class, and the teacher left. Most kids left, but a couple stayed, and Picky ran up to Ness. “Look Ness, I painted that meteor we saw together! See, there’s me, and you, and here’s Pokey! Oh yeah, and here’s Buzz Buzz. What ever happened to Buzz Buzz?”

Ness forgot Picky knew that much about the meteor and the Starmen and such. “Umm… Buzz Buzz…” Ness didn’t have the heart to tell Picky what happened to Buzz Buzz. “Buzz Buzz went home. Yeah. Hey…” While they were on the topic, since there weren’t many people around anyway. “Did you ever find out what happened to Pokey? After he sent the letter I mean?”

“...No. He just kind of disappeared. Do you know anything?”

Ness didn’t want to lie, but… “No. I have no clue what happened to him after he tried to take over Fourside. Guess he just went off somewhere.”

“Yeah… Anyway the bell’s about to ring, so I should probably get going. Mom won’t be happy if I take too long getting home.”

“Yeah, I should start heading home myself. I’m not used to this city. See you tomorrow!”

“See you!” With that, Picky left.

Ness looked over and noticed Claus listened to the whole conversation from a distance. “Hey Claus, what do you have against Picky?”

Claus was frowning. It seemed he did that a lot when certain topics were brought up, but it was so different from his normal happy and excitable self. It was so weird. “...Nothing in particular. I just… I didn’t know he had a brother…”

“But you didn’t even know he had a brother until five minutes ago! What is going on?”

“...Have you ever had something happen to you, something so bizarre and abnormal that no one would believe you if you told them?”

Ness was silent.

“Well, I… have. And I don’t think it’ll be able to be kept secret for much longer, but I’m going to do my best… please. Let me keep doing this for a little longer, okay?” Claus smiled, but his eyes looked sad. Ness didn’t know what to do here, but Claus changed the subject anyway. “So The Word On The Wind is that you just moved here. Is that true?”

“The word on the wind? Who? The only one who really knows that is Picky.”

“You don’t know The Word On The Wind?”

“No…”

“Well, nevermind then.” The bell rang. “See ya tomorrow Ness! I gotta go find my brother.”

Everyone who stayed in the classroom ran out, but Ness took a moment to think. What is with Claus? Maybe he should just leave him alone, but that’s not exactly his style. Ness was going to help him, some way, somehow. He just had to figure out what was wrong first. As Ness walked out of the school, he saw that Claus and his brother were already ahead of him. However, it didn’t seem like either of them understood crosswalks. Claus was ready to run through, and Lucas was ready to cry.

Ness said “There’s a button over here. You push it, and it will alert traffic to stop and wait for you. Lucas looked like that’s the craziest thing he’s ever heard. “Look, come over here.” Ness pushed the crosswalk button, and the stop hand turned into a walking guy. Lucas just stared at it in disbelief. “Have you never seen a crosswalk before?”

“Well, no. I haven’t exactly seen many cars before either. Only the pigmasks had them and… nevermind.”

“Pigmasks?”

Claus just laughed it off. “Me and Lucas are from a small village pretty far from here. I umm… moved to the city three years ago, but he didn’t. But at the city, I didn’t really need to tell anyone to stop. They just did. But I’ve never seen anything that causes everyone else to stop like this before. For most people it was, well, the cars stopped or they didn’t…” Ness reminded himself not to ask the obvious questions like what the heck a pigmask was or why they always stopped for Claus in particular. He had to be nice.

After they crossed the street, Ness realized they were all headed in the same direction. “Hey, so you just moved here, right?” Claus and Lucas nodded. “Where do you live now?”

“Oh we live…” Lucas burst out into tears. Claus quickly said “Lucas? Lucas what’s wrong?”

“I… I stubbed my toe!”

Claus looked like he had a hard time not laughing. “You’re crying this hard… because you stubbed your toe…”

“Yes! It hurts!”

Claus easily picked Lucas up and carried him. “There… now you and your terrifying foot injury will be okay. Better?”

“AHH! Claus! What if you drop me?”

“If I drop you there must be something seriously wrong… whoops!” Claus threw Lucas in the air and then caught him again.

“AHH!!! CLAUS! PUT ME DOWN!”

“I thought your toe hurt.” He did it again.

“NOT THAT BAD! PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN!”

“If you’re sure your poor stubbed toe can handle it.” Claus put Lucas down on his feet. “Hey look, we’re at our new apartment.”

Ness looked up and realized that this was the same apartment building HE was staying at too. “I guess we’re at the same apartment building.”

“Cool. You can help me try to throw Lucas all the way up through the window so he can get in faster. I think the window’s open, anyway..”

“CLAUS! NO!”

“But your toe…”

“IS PERFECTLY FINE! LOOK!” Lucas did a tiny tap number. “PERFECTLY FINE!” Ness couldn’t help but laugh at this.

“If you’re sure… it’s a lot of stairs.”

“I’m fine!” And with that, Lucas ran into the building and up all of the stairs.

“Well, better chase after him.” Claus ran up after him.

Ness laughed, realizing that these are much better neighbors to have than his previous ones. Then he climbed up the long set of stairs himself. He found his apartment, and unlocked the door. In Onett they never had apartments, or had to lock the door, or anything of the sort. The worst threat was the Sharks, and they weren’t too close to them, plus they were scared of Ness anyway.

“How was your first day at school, Ness?”

“Mom, do I have a cousin named Ninten?”

“... A cousin? Why?”

“Because there’s this kid at my school named Ninten Montague.”

“...No Ness. You do not have a cousin named Ninten. So how was your first day?”

“Eventful yet boring. I have this really annoying teacher who gets teased by one of the students, but never stays in the classroom. Also, I painted something.”

“Yeah, yeah, interesting… did you make any friends?”

“Yeah. One of our neighbors, named Claus, but he’s kind of weird. Then there’s Lloyd, who I first met hiding in a trashcan. Also, Picky Minch goes here now too.”

“Okay, sure, whatever. Well I’m going to start dinner soon. I’ll make some steak, since you’re going along with this so well.”

“Thanks, mom!”

After dinner, when Ness was in bed, he heard a BANG BANG BANG on the door. He quickly changed into his clothes, and grabbed his backpack and bat and rushed to the door. Finally, another adventure he could look forward to!

But when he opened his door, he realized it wasn’t on his door, it was on his neighbor’s. Must be someone for Claus or Lucas. Ness was about to shut the door until he heard: “Tomorrow? Already? But, that’s not much time at all!”

“That’s what King P wants.” It was Claus and Mr. Fassad! “I suggest you wear something a bit more dignified tomorrow, and stop it with the rebellious act.”

“I know how to act when King P is around! I just… I didn’t think he was coming this quickly.”

“One more thing: unless instructed otherwise, he wants you to act as if you don’t know him. He’s just another student, try to act as such.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Just don’t blow his cover!”

“I know, I know! I know how to do things. I _am_ still the commander after all. Shouldn’t I be telling you what to do?”

“Just don’t argue.”

“Just go away so I can get a proper amount of sleep before Scientist yells at you. He’s always so angry when I don’t get enough sleep.”

“Fine.” Mr. Fassad started walking off, and Ness quickly closed his door completely, hoping he didn’t notice. He then rushed into bed, still fully clothed. For an hour or so, he just stared at his ceiling thinking about what just happened, until he finally drifted off, and dreamed about that pink place on Ninten’s painting.

 

~~~

 

“You have a visitor.”

“Who?”

“The Commander. He says he wishes to speak to you specifically about the plan.”

“Let him in. I’m curious as to what he has to say.”


	3. Man with a Plan

“I’m not really sure I like this. It feels… weird.”

“Get over it.”

“Well yeah, but it’s been such a long time…"

“Didn’t you want to hurry up and do things? If you don’t hurry up, you’ll be late for school.”

"Okay, fine..."

 

~~~

 

Ness checked his backpack one last time before leaving. Pens, pencils, and paper? Check. Lunch? Check. Baseball bat? Check. Cup of life noodles? Check. A bunch of supplies just in case he needed to fight for anything? Check. And he was off to school. As he was walking out, he ran into Claus and Lucas, which wasn’t a surprise, but today Claus is dressed so… stiffly. He had a grey jacket, orange pants, huge heavy boots, white gloves, and a belt buckle with a… pig nose on it? Okay, so maybe not that stiff, but it definitely seemed off.

“Hey Claus, what’s with the outfit?”

“Oh, you know, just changing around what I wear some. Nothing much.”

They walked mostly in silence until they got to the school, which was confusing since yesterday Claus was such a chatterbox. Today he was just quiet, and he didn’t start throwing Lucas or anything. It wasn’t that he was being weird and standoutish, it’s because he _wasn’t_ being weird and standoutish. He didn’t even jump on the roof when they got to school. He just sat on the bench and waited for something. Did this have anything to do with whatever he and Mr. Fassad were talking about yesterday? Or maybe he got in trouble with his parents for being so rude to the teacher, whether he deserved it or not? Whatever the case, Claus just sat in silence. Ness considered asking him why, but when he was walking over to him, Lucas just grabbed Ness’ shoulder and shook his head. Okay, apparently Lucas knows what’s going on at least.

When the bell rang for class to start, Mr. Fassad wasn't there. The majority of the class took that as a chance to start goofing off, but Claus was as stiff as ever. Ness waited, and minutes passed. He didn't feel any particualar urge to get up and mess around like the rest of the class, so he just sat there kicking his legs. It was, however, really boring without Claus doing anything stupid like he did yesterday.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Fassad came in with a new student.

“Hello everyone, please welcome Teddy Junior the third. I think it’s in all of your best interests to be nice.” Teddy had a red shirt and yellow pants, and a very cool looking pair of red triangle shades. Ness was pretty sure sunglasses were against dress code, but he wasn’t going to argue with him.

“Teddy?” Lloyd said, both excited and scared at the same time. But Teddy seemed completely uninterested in Lloyd, and he walked up to Claus, and pushed him right out of his seat. Unlike what Ness would’ve expected, Claus simply got up and chose a different seat.

“Hey Ness, it’s been such a long time! I’ve missed you so much!” Teddy said, talking much differently then Ness would have expected by look.

“Do I know you?”

“Yes! Don’t you remember me? I remember you! We’re best friends!”

But then Lloyd gathered his courage and said “How could you possibly know him? We just got here a month ago… he’d remember you if you knew him… Also, you just ignored me and Ninten! Aren’t we supposed to all be friends now?”

Teddy stood up and started approaching Lloyd saying “Your gonna wish you never said that.” Lloyd sunk so deeply into his chair that it looked like he wished he could just disappear at this point. Ness remembered that when he first met Lloyd, he was hiding from everyone in a trashcan, afraid of being bullied. In fact, he considered Ness nice just for not being mean to him. So Ness wasn’t just going to let this guy push around Claus and be mean to Lloyd without putting up a fight.

 “Why don’t you just leave my friends alone?” Teddy looked at Ness with the look of a little kid being caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “I know for a fact that we’ve never been friends, because I couldn’t possibly be friends with someone like you without teaching you to change your ways! You hurt one of my friends, and threatened another one. How could you? Your just like the type of person I hate most in this world. You disgust me. And if your being controlled, then we aren't friends anyway because that's not you!"

Teddy looked like a kicked puppy. He wasn’t going to cry, but he was close. It seemed that for some reason, he really wanted Ness’ approval. Ness didn’t understand why, but someone else did. Ninten.

 “Who are you and what did you do with the real Teddy?” Ness wasn’t sure when Ninten walked over there, but it was obvious he’d been there for a while.

Teddy looked at Ninten. “What are you talking about? I am the real Teddy!”

“If you were the real Teddy and planned on beating up Lloyd, you would’ve already done so. Also, you wouldn’t have had that expression while Ness monologued at you. You would’ve fought him too. So if you are Teddy, prove it. We’ll have a sword fight.”

 From seemingly nowhere, Ninten threw Teddy a sword, and then grabbed one himself. He then got everyone to put their desks together to form an arena. “First one off or fake killed or actually killed loses. Lloyd is referee. Let’s go.”

Lloyd didn’t seem happy to be chosen as referee, but he didn’t complain. Ness was waiting for Mr. Fassad to intervene, but he was nowhere to be seen. Teacher of the year! Teddy looked terrified, an expression that didn’t match his face very well. Lloyd got in a trashcan, apparently protective armor, and peered out slightly. “Ok… begin in 3… 2… 1… GO!”

Ninten ran at Teddy, who was running away. While Teddy tried to hold his sword, he barely scraped his finger, and it started bleeding. “I GIVE UP!”, he shouted, tears running down his face. Claus literately sprang into action, pushing Ninten off the desks, and quickly running over to tend to Teddy’s wounds.

Ninten and Lloyd looked at each other, and at the same time they said “Not Teddy.”

“So who is he then?” Ness asked.

“Didn’t you know him?” Lloyd replied. “I don’t recognize him…” Lloyd looked over at the way Claus freaked out about Teddy, then his eyes grew wide. “Oh… that’s happening… now? I have to go!” Lloyd made a break for the door, but Mr. Fassad had just came back with a cup of banana flavored coffee, and Lloyd ran right into him.

 “Where are you going Mr. Andonuts?”

“Trashcan.” And he bolted right out the door.

Claus shouted at Mr. Fassad “Go get Master Porky a snack!” Mr. Fassad didn’t give a second thought, and went right back out of the classroom. Master Porky? It sounded familiar, but Ness couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

However Picky walked over there, and said, in a very innocent and almost sad voice, “Pokey?” That’s where he heard it! When Pokey used to play games, he’d usually go by the name ‘Porky’ due to his love for pigs.

Teddy AKA Porky AKA Pokey looked up at Picky, and had a surprised yet guilty expression. “...Picky? ...You weren’t part of the plan…” Plan? Great, Pokey is a man with a plan. Let’s just hope he isn’t working with anyone this time.

 Lloyd burst back into the room, but with Lucas with him. Lucas ran over to Claus. “Claus, please, let’s get out of here. Please?”Claus completely ignored Lucas, and Lucas tried to pull him away. Claus took out a lightning sword, and shot Lucas with lightning, only to get it reflected back to him. Lucas snatched the lightning sword out of his hand. “Lloyd! Help me carry him away from Porky!”

Lloyd hesitated, but helped grab Claus and carry him out there, though he was fighting quite a bit. Ness wasn’t sure if it was the best idea or not, but he used PK Hypnosis on Claus without thinking first. However, he also said that aloud without thinking… luckily there was a lot going on, and if anyone did notice, they didn’t say anything. Claus calmed down substantially when he was asleep, looking peaceful once again. Lucas and Lloyd carried him out as quickly as they could, despite the fact neither of them seemed that strong. Mr. Fassad came in with a huge chocolate sampler, like the type you find for $20 on Valentines day. The rest of the class was playing or watching or in entire chaos, and Picky was talking to Pokey, and everything was happening, until the bell for lunch rang. Some people stayed to watch, other people went to lunch, but Ness was going to go look for Claus, Lucas, and Lloyd, or at least he was, until Ninten put a hand on his shoulder.

 “You’re hiding something. Remember that.” And with that, Ninten grabbed his lunchbox and went to lunch. Man that guy’s creepy when he’s talking to you one on one. Persuading too. Ness was actually kind of afraid of what might happened if he were to ignore him.

Picky obviously wanted to talk to what Ness was going to assume was Pokey, and Ninten didn’t want Ness to go after the others, so what should he do? Ness quickly realized that the normal thing to do is to go to lunch with all the other kids. But… Ness wasn’t a normal kid! Even if he had to act like one, he didn’t have to BE one. Ness was going to find a way to help everyone in every way he could, while still keeping is cover! But how? Think, think, think! What did Ness do before everything when he had a problem? He’d tell a teacher! But… Mr. Fassad wasn’t going to help, so who? The principle! He could tell the principle that Claus was sick so his friends took him somewhere, and he needed to go home, but Ness didn’t know where he was. Then, Claus would get away from whatever influence is on him, without getting in any trouble for skipping class. It’d also give the other two a chance to get a good grip on the situation, without having to confront it head on immediately! Then, Ness would go to lunch, giving Picky ample time to talk to Pokey before Ness had to deal with him. Maybe then the problem would already be dealt with? Ness was going to hope so.

 

~~~

 

“Idiot, idiot, IDIOT! Can’t he stay in character for one day? Next time, I’m not trusting him, and I’m certainly not helping him. You want something done right, you’d better do it yourself! You were already friends with him if you just got away with it! Might as well give the original kid back his body later… who knows? He might just be more useful that Pokey ever was!”


	4. Girls, Stores, Robots, and Annoying Teachers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can't a normal kid just normally be normal on this normally normal day?

A front row seat isn’t always the best place to watch something. Better to learn late than never, Teddy supposed. He probably wasn’t getting out of this anytime soon, considering he didn’t think he had any sort of body anymore. Great. And he was going to be opening act and everything tomorrow. Well, that’s probably long since passed, since the one who took him did say they were going into the future. How far was anybody’s guess, but Teddy was going to assumed it was at least more than a few minutes. He’ll put his bet on around 10 years, if he had to though. He realized how pointless his thoughts were right now, but when your stuck in some sort of machine that is just simply meant to preserve you without requiring a body, you think a lot of pointless things. Like, how quickly you can count all 7,352 lines on the floor. Stuff like that. He’d probably had been stuck like this for about 5 days, but there was drama going around outside him then. Now there was nothing. Silence and stillness. He knew he was going to go crazy if he didn’t get out of here soon. Oh wait, cool, there’s that guy again. Didn’t miss the company of an obviously evil force. Nope. Not Teddy. Thank goodness something might actually happen here!

 

See, running against the flow of traffic in a hallway full of hungry kids isn’t fun. Starmen, Mooks, the Sharks, their nothing, but hungry teenagers going to lunch? It’s just a good thing they weren’t the ones trying to destroy humanity as everyone knows it, because Ness didn’t think they would be stopped. Why did the principal’s office have to be on the complete opposite side of the school from the classroom and the lunchroom? Normally that’d be a good thing, but not when you actually WANT to be seen by the principal. But of course, there wasn’t anything that Ness could do about it. When he reached the principal’s office, he saw some guy with pink hair and a beard at the desk. “May I help you sweetie-pie?” “...Umm…” “Yes, please, just say it.” “...Principal?” “Principal’s gone, cutie-pie. Anything else?” “...Umm… nope! Nothing at all!” Ness left in a hurry. What the heck was that thing? It was weird, whatever it was. But now what was he supposed to do?”

 

Wait… did anyone ever actually ASK for his help? He didn’t actually think they did. He’s just so used to being asked to fix everything, that he doesn’t know how NOT to fix everything. But, now that he thinks about it, no one did. Surely that doesn’t mean that they don’t want his help though… right? Right? Ness questioned this, and started wondering just how much good he’d actually do. Claus seemed like he wanted to avoid talking about whatever was going on with him as much as possible, and maybe he didn’t actually want anyone involved. But, what was Ness supposed to do then? Deal with Pokey? No, Picky wanted to talk to him, and Pokey was always weird around Ness. He’d probably just make matters worse. So then what? Ness wasted a good ten minutes standing in the hall like an idiot until someone made up his mind for him.

 

“Ness, you’re Claus’ friend, right? So can you promise to help me help him and not ask too many questions?” Ness turned to find Lucas who had snuck up behind him while he was lost in thought. “Umm… yeah, sure. What do you need help with?” “I can’t… if I’m around right now, it’ll just make him so, so upset. But he needs to get home! Me and Lloyd, we’ll probably just make things worse… so I need you to bring him home! Please… I just… I can’t bear to see him like this!” Lucas started crying like a waterfall, making it impossible for Ness to refuse. “Yeah, sure. The apartment right next to mine, right?” Lucas, who had now fell onto his knees while crying, looked up and nodded at Ness. “Ok… umm… I do need to know where he his now though…” Lucas got up, and started walking towards the courtyard. “This way… and Ness… thank you.” When they got there, Lucas pointed over to where Lloyd sitting next to Claus who was laid down on a bench. As Ness started walking towards Claus, Lucas ran in tears again. Great.

 

“Hey Ness, thanks for willing to help. It’d be better if me and Lucas weren’t around right now… are you sure you can deal with him though? I’ve taken his sword and disabled his cannon, and Lucas temporarily made it so he can’t use any… other powers. But still....” “...Cannon? Sword? Other powers? You know what, it’s fine. I’ve dealt with some powerful things before. I’m sure I can handle… whatever is going on with Claus.” “Thanks Ness. I’m going to go look for Lucas now.” Lloyd ran in the direction Lucas had went in, and Ness picked up Claus over his shoulder. Man he was heavy. As Ness started walking through the hall to the front exit, he heard someone behind him. A familiar voice that Ness really didn’t need to be hearing right now.

 

“And just where do you think you’re going?” Ness turned around to be face to face with Mr. Fassad. “Umm… just… Claus got sick, so I thought I’d take him home!” “Mmm hmm. And why didn’t you just call his parents to pick him up. And why didn’t you tell me. Also, Claus isn’t sick. He doesn’t GET sick. Or if he does, he doesn’t make it obvious. He wouldn’t care, especially around his master. Give him to me.” Mr. Fassad tried to grab Claus right off of Ness’ shoulders, but Ness quickly dodged like he did when he was attacked by robots. He then grabbed his bat in the hand opposite to Claus, his nondominant hand unfortunately, and SMAAAASHED Mr. Fassad across the hall. Then, he made a break for it. While Mr. Fassad was still dazed and getting up, Ness started running as fast he could out the hall door while he was weighed down like this. He could hear Mr. Fassad behind him, but he wasn’t that fast and couldn’t keep up. Ness burst out the door and started running without worrying where he was going at first. All that mattered was distance. He ran and ran, and ended up running into the department store. He found his way up into the sixth floor, where they had opened a clothes section. He quickly hid in between some clothes, and waited silently to catch his breath and let Mr. Fassad pass by without noticing.

 

How long had it been? Ness was unsure, but he wasn’t going to move from this spot until he was 100% sure that Mr. Fassad had passed and he was safe to leave. However, there were two red mary jane shoes that walked up, and Ness felt like he recognized them, but he just couldn’t put his finger on it. Then, whoever this person was, put down a shockingly familiar teddy bear to search through the clothes. Now Ness recognized those shoes… Paula. Ness tried to scramble away without being heard, but he realized that if he went anywhere in any direction, Paula would see him leave. But it didn’t matter, because Paula had moved one of the dresses on the rack to the side, and saw Ness. “...Ness?” Ness tried to make himself look confused, or innocent, or not Ness, or SOMETHING, but failed miserably. But her excited smile quickly changed into anger, as she took out her frying pan and started hitting Ness with it, yelling “NESS HOW COULD YOU JUST IGNORE ME? I TRIED TO TALK TO YOU, YOU PROMISED WE WOULD, BUT IT’S BEEN A MONTH AND NOTHING! HOW DARE YOU YOU MONSTER! I WILL KILL YOU I WILL TEAR OUT YOUR INTESTINES AND HANG THEM ON MY CHRISTMAS TREE LIKE A GARLAND! Ness I’m so happy to see you again! It’s been far too long! Oh no, you’re hurt! Here’s a cookie!” Ness took the cookie and ate it quickly, before she got angry saying he didn’t like her cookies or something. Then he said “...Hey Paula… I love umm… your dress. It looks good on you.” As he struggled to keep her appeased, he quickly remembered how many compliments and approving and being nice it took to make it so he could survive around her. He actually needed to be brought back from the dead the time she found out about him taking her teddy bear and getting it destroyed.

 

“Who’s that?” Paula asked, pointing to the still asleep Claus next to Ness. Just as she said that though, Claus woke up, and was quickly up on his feet. His arm transformed into a cannon aimed at Ness, and he tried to fire it, but it didn’t do anything. However, Paula saw this happen. “DON’T YOU DARE TRY TO HURT MY NESS! PK FIRE!” Paula shot fire out at Claus, setting the whole store on fire, and setting off the sprinkler system. Claus, which apparently was part robot now, started to short out. Ness quickly grabbed Claus’ and Paula’s hands, and used PK Teleport to get them out of there quickly. It certainly was suspicious to use psychic powers, but he was pretty sure it’d be more suspicious to be there, and he didn’t think anybody had seen him. And if they had… it’d sound like they made it up.

 

Ness had teleported them right outside of the apartment building. “Alright Paula, I don’t know what to do now. I just had to return him home, and then I was done. But now he’s… shorting out? Pretty sure he’s not human… anymore. I don’t know.” “Well why don’t we just call Jeff? He’ll fix him up good as new!” “We can’t get Jeff we…” “Don’t you like my idea Ness?” “Umm… yes! It’s just that…” “Just what?” “Nothing! Nothing!” Man, that girl was intimidating. But none of it mattered, because Claus just kind of… got over it. The electric sparks stopped, and Claus got up and looked at Ness, smiling. “You brought me here, didn’t you? Thanks for that. I should get home now, but… do you wanna come in with me… I just… don’t feel like being by myself right now, and my dad’s at work.” “Umm… sure. No problem.” Don’t ask, don’t ask, don’t ask!!! “What happened?” Of course Ness had to ask. Claus looked down a little, and obviously lied when he said “nothing…” Of course something was up, but Ness really didn’t want to push him when he’s down. Paula didn’t mind though.

 

“Are you a robot?” Such a simple question, yet it seemed to almost physically hurt Claus by the impact of the words alone. “No… no I’m not. Why don’t I… just go. See you tomorrow Ness.” Claus ran into the building quickly and without looking back. Paula didn’t seem to notice anything was up and instead said “Okay, let’s go get my teddy bear now!” Wait… Ness thought back to the department store where Paula had put down her teddy bear. He looked over in the direction of it, and there were fire trucks, the entire building burning down. Ness froze, and said “Umm… well, I umm… your teddy bear talked to me! She said that she wanted to go umm… go see her family in Summers. She’ll be back soon, but not yet!” “Oh okay! Thanks for telling me Ness! Let’s just go to Summers!” “I can’t! Too much to do, and umm… she wanted to go there herself. I’ll bring her to you wherever you are when she returns.” Ness started to wonder what Paula was doing here at all, but Paula answered without needing to be asked. “Okay, well, I have to catch the next bus to Twoson… I really want to stay longer, but I have to help out at Polestar Preschool. You understand. But I’ll be seeing you again very soon!” “See you soon Paula!”

 

As Paula got on the bus, Ness tried to remember what it was he was doing. Something with Claus? Ness looked at one of the tall skyscrapers that was displaying the time, and realized there wasn’t much time left of school. Not exactly much time to go back, but too much time to go home. He figured he’d at least walk over there to talk to Lucas, though. When he got back to school, all the kids were getting released like nothing happened. Then again, nothing DID happen to most of them. However, Lloyd and Lucas rushed over to Ness.

 

“Ness! How’s my brother doing?” Lucas asked. “I… think he’s alright. He freaked out a little but…” “What’d he do? I’m sorry…” “No! Nothing to apologize about. It’s…” The curiosity of Ness got the better of him. “What is he anyway?” Lucas looked down, and Lloyd started talking to the ground, refusing to look Ness in the eye. “It… it’s up to him to decide to tell you or not. Just know… it’s not his fault, and he doesn’t want to hurt you. I wouldn’t be worried, honestly. Please don’t blame him for any of the trouble he may have caused…” Well, Ness felt like a jerk for asking. “Ok… well he may be a little… out of it, but he should be okay. ...Are you okay?” Lucas still wouldn’t look at Ness. “I need to go check on him. Lloyd, can you come to? Just to make sure?” Lloyd nodded, and they started walking back to the apartment. Ness didn’t know WHAT to do. He couldn’t follow them, but that was his way home. But the choice was made for him.

 

“Hey. You.” Ness turned around to see another girl with pink hair, but this one was a child and actually female. “Yeah?” “What did you say to Lucas?” “Nothing…” “You obviously upset him. What did you say?” “Nothing!” This girl was getting intense! It didn’t seem like she was a bully or anything, but she seemed pretty strong and protective. Ness didn’t really want to mess with her, but didn’t see an easy way to get out of this. He wasn’t going to tell her what happened though. “I’ll tell you one thing. If you try to mess with Lucas ever again, you’ll have to get through me first!” And with that, she left. Okay. Yep. That was a thing that happened.

 

Ness waited a few minutes for the plot to catch up and make sure nothing else important that should be documented happened. When he was fairly certain there wasn’t, he started heading home. When he was about to go into his apartment, he heard something going on in a dark alley. Yep. Danger written all over that. So of course, Ness did the normal person thing and decided to see what was going on. I mean, come on. Hasn’t anyone ever seen a horror movie? That is the 100% normal reaction!

 

He was surprised at what he saw. It was Pokey, still in disguise, but Pokey. And there was someone else too, but Ness just couldn’t see unless he wanted to move far enough in to be seen himself. As soon as he considered moving closer anyway, the two of them warped away. Okay. Psychic then, aren’t we? Ness didn’t remember Pokey being psychic, but maybe the other one was? Ness chalked it up to that.

 

Ness finally got home, and when he did, he found Ninten sitting on his couch. What the heck? “Ninten?” “I’m living here now.” Ness couldn’t really figure out why, but the 250 guts he had weren’t enough for him to say no. He just accepted it. Ninten lived there now. Great.

 

When it was time for dinner, it seemed Ness’ mom and Tracy had also already found out and accepted it themselves. His mom made prime ribs for dinner, which felt a little weird to Ness, but he’d deal. What he was more confused about was the fact that Picky was there. So he asked in the most subtle way possible. “Picky, what are you doing here?” “...Stuff…” Tracy cut in for him. “Me and Picky were just working on some school work together. You know how it is.” Then she whispered low enough so that only Ness could hear. “And if you tell mom we aren’t in the same class, I’ll tell mom where you were after lunch. By the way, there’s a price tag stuck to your shirt.” Ness felt around his shirt and pulled off a sticker from the department store. Great. Whatever it was she was doing, he couldn’t do anything about it.

 

After dinner, Picky went home. Then, when it was time for bed, Ness had found Ninten was already sleeping on his bed. Ness considered waking him up to tell him, but he was afraid of what would happen if he did. So instead, he went to sleep on the couch for today. He would talk to Ninten about it tomorrow. Maybe. Man that boy was intimidating!


	5. What Friends Are For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'know, like hitting someone in the head with a baseball bat.

He approached Teddy, holding the hand of the one who had his body. Teddy didn’t know who it was, and didn’t care. As long as he got it back. “Please just give me a second chance!” He shook his head at the Teddy look-alike, or the Teddy look-exactly-like, and grabbed him. With a huge burst of light, and a weird sensation, Teddy gained ALL sensation again. He quickly realized he had his body back! He made a run for it. He tripped however, because he had forgotten how to run. He grabbed Teddy’s arm and pulled him back up. He said “You’ll join me for now.” Just as he said that, Teddy felt weird. His thoughts were quickly taken over, and he listened. He decided that he would, in fact, join him for now.

 

A small boy stepped on his own two feet for the first time in a long time. He looked in the mirror and saw his own reflection, the one he remembered, and smiled. It was an instant reaction, and he enjoyed it greatly. He found himself staring at his reflection messing around with facial expressions for a couple minutes, because he hadn’t had the energy to do them before. After fooling around for awhile, he finally decided to start getting ready for his first day at school. Well, not his first, he’s been there before, but his first day as HIMSELF in many, many years. The small boy grabbed his bag, and started heading there. He ran the whole way, and had a blast doing so.

 

Ness woke up on a couch… why? Right! Ninten didn’t know which room was Ness’. He should tell him… tomorrow. On second thought, a good host would never deny their guest comfort! Even if the guest moved in… Yeah…

 

When Ness walked into the kitchen, he could smell prime ribs again… they were kinda gross honestly. “Mom…” “Yes Ness?” “Why do we keep having prime ribs? Their gross! I want steak!” “Sorry Ness, but Ninten’s favorite food is prime ribs. You’ll just have to learn to like them.” Ness was going to puke if that’s all he ever ate. But… maybe Tracy will complain to Ninten. Yeah, she can…

 

When it came to breakfast time, that’s exactly what she did. “Mom… this isn’t breakfast. You promised me Toaster Strudels!!! The strawberry ones with chocolate frosting!” “Tracy, we need to be nice to our guest.” Ness took back any wish of Tracy complaining. Ninten hadn’t said a word, but he looked up at her. Ness feared for his little sister’s life. “Tracy, maybe you should…” “Our ‘guest’ moved in! So I can imagine him like another member of the family right? Well, around here we take turns deciding meals, and today was my turn!” With that, Tracy got up and made a Toaster Strudel herself. Ninten had stopped eating and was just watching her. The look in his eyes looked almost evil. But not the type of evil Ness could deal with! No, this guy could probably take Giygas on by like, singing to him or something! Who knows what he could do to Tracy? But he didn’t DO anything. He just sat there staring in disapproval. Eventually he went back to eating. Ness decided he must just be waiting to strike.

 

As they left the apartment, so did Lucas, Claus, and apparently Lloyd. Ness wasn’t aware they lived together, but apparently they did. Ness was dying with curiosity… but he wouldn’t say anything. Claus was teasing his brother and laughing and smiling, and Ness couldn’t take that away from him. Even if he HAD to know EXACTLY what was with him, he wouldn’t act upon his curiosity. He seemed fine, even when all that crazy stuff happened yesterday. He was holding the arm that turned into the cannon kind of weirdly though. However, he wore the same thing he wore on the first day of school, so Ness figured Claus wasn’t expecting anything special to happen. Atleast, nothing more than a little teacher teasing. The walk to school was relatively uneventful, but that’s when they arrived at school.

 

Ness felt it as soon as he got there. Something strange was up. He wasn’t really sure what, though. Ninten probably felt it, since he had felt everything before, but he didn’t act upon it. In fact, Ness thought he may be the only one who HAD felt it. Claus had jumped up on the roof again, much to Lucas’ dismay, Lloyd had jumped into a trashcan, Ninten was nowhere to be seen, and Tracy ran to talk to Picky. Ness was on his own. He probably could have joined one of them, if he wanted, but things just felt off. But it turned out Ninten was there, right behind Ness.

 

“You’re psychic, aren’t you?” Ness jumped, and he jerked his head back to look at Ninten. “NO! PSYCHICS DON’T EXIST! HAHAHAHA GOOD ONE!” Ninten looked disapprovingly at Ness. “Really? You don’t say.” Ness was terrified. Who was this kid and what did he know? Ninten began again. “Okay, fine then. Ever heard of someone by the name of Giygas?” Ness looked straight at the Montague that looked like a mirror image of himself. He didn’t even know how to respond to that. But he didn’t have to. Ninten walked away. ...Was that it? Just asking weird and strangely accurate questions and walking away? Ness didn’t understand this kid, but he was thankful that he didn’t expect an answer. Ness wasn’t sure if he could lie about that when it was asked so straightly from Ninten. But... there was something odd about Ninten. Well, more than one thing but... how could he sense all of these things? He guessed it didn’t matter though. Ness would never ask him.

 

When they got called to their class, Fassad wasn’t there yet. So they sat, talked, and waited. But then, someone else walked in. Straight up Pokey. Not like, Pokey in a different body, not falling apart in a mech Pokey. Just Pokey. And no one knew how to act. So Claus did first. He wasn’t stiff this time. Nope. He walk right up there, and punched Pokey so hard he went flying out into the hall. Then, he closed and locked the door. He also pulled down the blinds. And then, he put  desk in front of the door. Everyone in the class just looked at him with complete confusion.

 

“What? I didn’t want to let the rat in the classroom.” Claus said, then as he got to the teacher’s desk, “Anyone up for a free period?” Nobody said a word. He looked at them all with a ‘your crazy’ look, and pulled some chips out of Fassad’s desk and started munching on them. The entirety of the class still just stared at him. “What? Want some?” He pulled out more bags of chips from the desk and threw them out to the class. The entire class finally lost their composure and starting howling with laughter. Everyone but Picky, anyways. Even shy Lloyd and quiet Ninten joined in, all laughing at once. That’s when someone forced the door open, causing the desk blocking it to go flying.

 

Claus thrilled expression quickly changed to terror as he quickly got away from Fassad’s desk. He quickly got under his own desk as if that would entirely hide his presence from anyone that may come through that door. Then Fassad walked in, followed by Pokey. “Where is he?” Fassad asked in a tone much more threatening than a teacher should usually use. Nobody moved. Ness didn’t even dare look anywhere near where Claus should be, but he knew he was there. There was no where he could have possibly have gone. So Fassad walked over there, and unsurprisingly pulled him out from under the desk by his throat. Claus kicked and squirmed, but then reached out and grabbed Fassad’s own throat, and Fassad dropped him. Claus looked nervously to both Fassad and Pokey, then made a break for the door. But Pokey had other plans.

 

“Just where do you think you’re going?” Pokey asked, sounding proud of himself. Claus immediately stopped and bowed at Pokey. “I don’t like it when my toys misbehave. You aren’t going to get away with this”, Pokey continued. Confusion filled Ness as he watched this exchange, and he wondered why Claus didn’t run, but then he realized: he couldn’t. Every time Ness saw him interact with Pokey, or even Picky, he froze and got stiff just like he was now. Some of the things Fassad said had been bothering Ness too. Not to mention Lloyd. What was going on? Ness knew one thing though. He had to get Claus out of this, one way or another. So Ness did the one thing he could think of doing.

 

Since everyone else, including Pokey himself, was being distracted by the current situation, it wouldn’t be hard to go unnoticed. Ness got on the floor and started crawling as low to the ground as he could. Then when he made it to Claus, he quickly stood up and hit him in the head with his bat. Sorry, Clausy. It seemed to knock some sense into him, at least, as Claus looked VERY surprised. Then, Ness grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out the class door and through the halls. Ness didn’t know where they were going, but it had to be somewhere.

 

“Hey, thanks for hitting me in the head with the strongest baseball bat I’ve ever seen.” Claus said, and he sounded sincere. Ness smiled at him. “What are friends for?” Any trace of Claus’ former stiffness was gone. It was like he was two different people! Ness wanted so badly to know what was wrong with him, but now REALLY didn’t seem like the time to ask. Ness was starting to run out of breath, and it seemed like Claus noticed. He grabbed the side of an air vent with one hand, and lifted Ness up to it with the other. Okay, so he’s strong. Claus then pulled up into the vent himself and whispered “We should be safe here for now. But let’s try to find a locked room or something to drop into so we don’t have to stay crammed up here for hours. Also, maybe somewhere where a teacher left their lunch unattended. I’m hungry!” Ness stifled a laugh. Of course the first thing to worry about  when crawling into an air vent is which direction the food is. Then Ness remembered something. “I have some food in my backpack. You can have some when we get out of here.” Ness heard a small laugh from Claus behind him. There was only space to go one by one, so Ness supposed he had to lead now.

 

It seemed that every classroom was in use for some class or other. Darn schools being resourceful. But after a little while of crawling around, Ness found something else. He and Claus dropped down into a room that didn’t really look like it belonged in a school. More like a room that belonged in a lab. Claus shuddered. “Ness, are you sure we should be here?” he asked, sounding scared. Claus’ expression matched that of a small boy who just found a robber in his house or something. “Claus… are you okay? You seem so fearless in some things, but others…” Ness’ voice trailed off. Claus started crying, a sight Ness would never expect to see, not from him. This is the same boy who jumped on the roof twice, threatened a teacher, and punched Pokey out of the classroom. And yet, he just seemed so small now. “...No. I’m not okay. And I never will be.” Claus kept crying until he jumped like a bolt of electricity just went through his entire body. He then quickly dried his tears up. And started laughing.

 

“ahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh my pork did you see Porky’s face? He looked like I just kicked his puppy or something! And Fassad looked so angry too! I swear that guy’s just a monkey in disguise sometimes though. He sure smells like one! AHAHAHAHAHA!” Ness, surprised by Claus’ sudden change in mood, couldn’t help but join in. Claus’ happiness was just so contagious.  “Hey Claus, you remember that time you took over the classroom, and said that if you had to see him after class you’d just end up supervising so he doesn’t eat his poop?” The two boys laughed and laughed, all previous sadness forgotten. But they must have been making a lot of noise, because someone else was there.

 

“Ahem. Who are you and what are you doing here?” Ness turned around to see someone that looked an awful lot like Ninten, but gothier. He wore a black, white, and grey striped shirt, a dark grey hat, striped socks, grey shorts, and all and all had a very “whoops we forgot to use the colored camera” vibe to him. Even his skin looked sickly and almost grey. His eyes were just pure black. Ness and Claus backed away from him. “When I ask you something, you’d better answer.” Ness’ head hurt. It hurt so bad he thought it was going to explode. He wanted to curl up and sleep this feeling away. In fact, Claus did pass out. He just fell to the ground. But Ness had to resist. He had to know what was going on. He couldn’t let go… he couldn’t… sweet, sweet darkness was the only thing Ness could see now as he drifted to sleep… in a world of nightmares.


	6. Can you really put the milk in before the cereal?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That's what Ness would like to know.

Ness jerked awake screaming. How long had he been asleep? He couldn’t remember. His mind felt like it had been fighting a war against itself… and losing. He didn’t know what was a dream and what wasn’t of what he just saw. Were his friends really… dead? Did he fail to stop Giygas? No. He couldn’t have. He remembered succeeding. So what happened then? His head hurt so bad, it hurt to think. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to live. He wanted to drop back into darkness, of thoughts, true or not. The light here is much too harsh. So he closed his eyes. The noise was too much! But there was none. It smells awful, but there’s no smell. He wanted to go home. To his home in Onett. Maybe his friends are looking for him. Maybe they’ve forgotten about him. Where is he? He felt himself drift back into the sweet, unfeeling, and merciless hands of the dark.

 

How long has he been here? He couldn’t remember. Years were moments and moments were years. And yet, the nightmares never stopped. He couldn’t get free, he couldn’t… the lights turned on the the Ninten doppelganger was standing right infront of him. Ness stared into the black void that were his eyes, because the lights were too bright and the colors were too much. There was no feeling there. Nothing. Ness wanted to escape, but he couldn’t move. Not an inch. The look-alike smiled at him. Terrifyingly. “Enjoying your stay?” He said, in a very condescending voice. Ness wanted to scream. He wanted to run, to go home to his friends. But he couldn’t think. About anything. Except the matter at hand. He stared blankly, and didn’t try to move. Then he fell. He fell to the ground, and he was free to move if only he remembered how. But he didn’t. He sat there, face down to the ground, still unable to move. To even think about moving. When he thought of anything, anything at all, sharp pains shot through his skull like a knife. He could barely breathe. But he had to.

 

He felt a soft kick in the stomach, then heard “You fifth generation human psychics are so weak. It shouldn’t be this easy.” Ness felt a force he couldn’t understand push him up so that he was face to face with the speaker. Ness didn’t fight it. He didn’t have the energy to. He just stayed there, propelled by an unknown force, with his only thing he was capable of being breathing. He was useless. He then felt himself being dropped like a ragdoll. His captor walked away, and the lights turned out. Back to sweet nightmares.

 

“Hey, hey, wake up!” Ness carefully opened his eyes to see Claus desperately trying to shake him awake. It felt like a hurricane had hit his senses. As soon as Claus noticed he was awake, he stopped. “You alright?” He wanted to tell him no, he was most certainly not alright, but Ness couldn’t find the words. He sat there, silently, staring back at Claus. Then Claus had a look of surprise, and put a straw in Ness’ mouth so he could drink. Cold water went down Ness’ throat, a sensation that was both relaxing and terrifying. But it was nice to have something in him. Of course, now Ness wanted to puke, but it was better than nothing. Claus smiled at Ness and pulled him to his feet. Ness then proceeded to fall back to the ground, since his legs forgot how to stand, and actually puke due to the shock of movement. Claus quickly backed away.”Sorry. Didn’t realize how bad you were.” Ness’ head pounded and his mind was a mess. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he was going to find out. He forced himself up off the ground and lost his balance. Claus quickly caught him. After carrying most of Ness’ weight and balance on his back, Claus whispered in his ear “We’ve got to go along with this for now. But don’t worry... I’ll figure out something.”

 

Ness, with the help of Claus, made his way to a different room in this weird lab. The Ninten looking dude was sitting a very comfortable-looking office chair, but in an uncomfortable way, as if he wasn’t used to sitting at all. Behind him was a large wall of camera screens from all over the school. Ness could see his classroom and all of the others. He could also see the cafeteria, the teacher’s lounge, even inside the principal’s office. It seemed that class was out at the moment, because no one was there. He looked up sadly, but an evil looking smile quickly overtook his face. “So, you two are finally awake? I didn’t do much, just kept you asleep for a little while, with a couple… modifications. The saddest thing is I didn’t even have to think of anything new for one of you… just replay old memories over, and over, and over again.” He was looking directly at Claus when he said this. What kind of memories could possibly compare to the types of dreams Ness had been having?

 

“I expected one of you to break free of it eventually, so I was disappointed to find that neither of you could. The ‘Chosen Boy’ and the ‘Dragon Master’, both incapable of breaking free of a single string of dreams, one I even allowed you to wake up from. What a shame. Even when I forced you free, it took the Dragon Master another day to break free, and the Chosen boy took three. With help! How disappointing.” The words that described each of them floated around in Ness’ mind for a couple moments. ‘Chosen Boy’ made sense, but who was ‘Dragon Master’? Ness decided to stop thinking, as his head felt like it may explode again. Again? Did it explode once? Ness dizzily entertained the fantasy of his head cartoonishly exploding for a moment before he tried to focus back on the matter at hand. What did he need to do again? Save the world? Ness thought about saving the world. From what? Stupid teachers? No. Aliens. “I need… to stop the aliens…!” Ness exclaimed, sounding drunk. Drunk off nightmares and mind wars, maybe. Claus gave Ness a weird look, but Ness didn’t understand it. “But we need four steaks and a bee if we want to do that! Wait… a bee he is not.” Now it was the weird guy’s turn to give Ness a weird look. Wait, are weird guys allowed to think people are weird? Ness decided to ask. “Can you really put the milk in before the cereal?” Thoughts swirled around in Ness’ mind, unable to make any sense. Why weren’t they answering his questions correctly? He needed sleep. Real sleep in the arms of his great, great grandmother. Whoever she was. But who sleeps without a lullaby. Ness wanted to be sung a lullaby! “Pretty please Mr. Disguise Person? What’s your name?” Mr. Disguise Person gave Ness a look like he was crazy. But he was the crazy one! “...Call me Ginten for now. Sounds good enough. Now, you’re of no use to me in that state. Snap out of it.” Ness started snapping his fingers. Wait… did he have fingers? “Your thoughts are distracting me! Stop it!” Ginten didn’t seem very happy with Ness’ thoughts. What kind of name is Ginten anyway? It’s just as uncreative as the name Ninten… wait. “Ginten, is Ninten your long-lost brother? I found him!”

 

Ginten jumped out of the chair and layed on the floor looking towards the ceiling. “I said stop it!” He just laid there for no reason whatsoever. Why would he need a reason? What about a raisin?   
“FINE! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!” Ness’ mind cleared, like clouds moving 250 mph away from the sun. He stood on his own, and felt perfectly fine again. Wow, that was weird. What was that? Ginten answered the question before Ness even bothered asking. “Certain psychic abilities, specifically mine, can and will cause slight to total insanity if I will it to. I just didn’t expect you to be so susceptible to it. Weak humans.” Ginten stood back up and sat back in his chair, just as uncomfortably as before. “At least the other one was accustomed to having his mind taken over, so he was smart enough to be able to break through it! You’re a fifth generation psychic Ness Montague, you should be better than this! Ginten glared at the two of them for a moment, like he was making a decision. “Fine. Go. I’ll see you two sooner than you expect.” And with that, the world around Ness melted like it was nothing. Just a dream. And he woke up right in front of his apartment, with Claus.

 

They exchanged wide-eyed looks, than Claus began “My brother is going to be so mad that I disappeared again! Heheh, I wonder how worried he’s been.” Well Claus was in good humor for just being kidnapped, mentally tortured, and released like nothing. Cool beans. “Claus, why are you so happy? We don’t even know how long we were in there! He could’ve done anything!” “Yeah, but he didn’t. We’re fine, right? You got your head together, and I’m only as messed up as I was when I entered. I think he was only testing us. And we failed, right? So we aren’t useful to him. Now we can move on with our pretty abnormal lives. But seriously, what kind of name for a villian is Ginten?” Claus burst out in laughter again. Ness couldn’t help but join. Then he remembered something Ginten had said earlier.

 

“Claus, Ginten or whatever said you woke up two days before me. What happened then?” “Nothing really, he just brought me food and stuff. Told me to get my strength back up. I was pretty bad too. Not as bad as you were though.” Claus laughed again. “He even let me stay in a pretty nice room. I wasn’t aloud to leave it, but it was pretty nice for being kidnapped. High quality food, too. He said something about me being too important to let fall apart. True enough, as I probably would fall apart if he did something as simple as, I don’t know, turned the sprinkler system on. But what was weird is that the place was huge and it was all inside the school. Like someone purposely made space for it to be there, not that he just happened upon a random classroom like we originally hoped to. Anyway, he kept trying to get me to wake you up so he didn’t have to. Guess he didn’t want to deal with you when you were like that. I think that about sums it up.” Ness was even more curious than ever. What could this Ginten guy even want with them? And why was he being so harsh, yet so friendly to Claus later on? It made no sense. But something else made him lose his train of thought. A yellow bullet racing right past his ear.

 

Or rather, a kid with yellow hair. He ran so fast right past Ness and tackled into Claus’ arms. It was Lucas. “Claus, don’t ever run off again! I thought we agreed! After I heard what happened with Porky, I was so scared! I promised not to let anything bad ever happen to you again, and I did!” Lucas was crying himself a river, that Claus seemed to take care to avoid. He delicately pushed his brother away from him just far enough that the tears didn’t reach him, but Lucas just got close again. It wasn’t until another one of those electric sparks things happened that Lucas backed down. But Claus didn’t seemed worried and simply said “There was nothing you could do” and shrugged. Next it was Tracy’s turn, but she didn’t seem to care too badly. “Ness, why would you skip class? Mom made me get your homework from your teacher, and he’s weird!” Ness was confused on why she didn’t seem to care that he was back, so he asked the biggest question on his mind. “Tracy, how long have I been gone?” “I don’t know, 6 hours? Sometime before lunch.” “6 HOURS!?” Both Ness and Claus said that at the same time. Then Claus clarified. “I know for a FACT we’ve been gone for at least 3 days MINIMUM!!! Even my internal clock says we’ve been gone… 6 hours?” Ness decided to overlook the internal clock thing for now because he’s just been told that all of that only took six hours. There was no way! “More like 5 and a half, actually.” Tracy clarified.

 

Ninten, who was apparently there now, asked the question that Ness expect a while ago. “Where were you?” “With your evil twin” Claus snorted. “My what?” Ness decided to clarify. “Well he looked like you as seen from a black and white camera. And he went by the name Ginten.” Ninten was lost in thought. “You don’t say”, he muttered. He didn’t say anything after that, just stood there thinking. Then Lucas broke the silence saying “C’mon Claus. I called dad earlier and he’s been worried sick about you too! He’s been looking all over town for you! We should use the weird communication thing-” “Phone?” “Yeah, that, to let him know you’re back now!” Claus started laughing again, for what seemed like the millionth time after being kidnapped. “You guys know I can take care of myself, right?” Claus said, with a hint of sincerity to it. “Yes, but after what happened last time-” “Three years ago. I’ve gotten stronger since then. And smarter.” “Still! Anything can happen! You promised you wouldn’t run off anymore!” Lucas looked like he was about to cry again, and Claus sighed. “I didn’t have a choice. But maybe next time I’ll give dad a call on that weird communication thingy most people call a phone before I run from world domination. Will that make you happier?” “Yes.” “Okay, fine.”

 

That’s when a cowboy walked up to the group. Ness didn’t think he’d see an adult cowboy in Fourside when he woke up this morning. Then again, he has no clue what time he woke up most recently, so a cowboy is just fine.

 

“Claus. Next time, tell someone before you decide to skip class. We had no clue where you were, and…” the cowboy looked sadly to the ground. “Well, I was worried about you. We all were.” Claus rolled his eyes. “I missed you too dad. But I’m fine, see? I just hid out in the air vents from Porky for a little bit, that’s all.” Claus winked at Ness. “Nothing dangerous in that, right?” Claus’ father sighed. “Just… next time, bring your brother with you or something. I’d like to try to get him transferred to your class.” “I don’t need a babysitter!” Claus’ good nature was gone, and he looked furious. “If I can lead an army for three years, if I can handle the stress of everything that happened, I can go to school without Lucas watching me like a hawk!” Claus started crying as he continued. “If I could stand three years of Porky’s crap, I can stand one day of school! Just because Lucas kept his heart pure doesn’t mean I didn’t want to! AGH! Just forget it!” Claus stormed into the apartment complex, leaving a shocked silence behind him. Ness… wasn’t sure what just happened. No one really seemed to be. 

 

No one wanted to move, until Tracy said “Come on Ness, we have to get inside. No need to wait for your punishment for skipping classes any longer! Maybe you’ll have to do all my chores for a month!” Tracy dragged Ness into the building and Ninten followed. But Ness’ mom didn’t seem mad at all. “Ness?” “Yeah?” “Why did you skip class? Be honest.” Ness paused. How much should she tell her. He decided that just the purpose would suffice. “To get my friend away from Pokey.” Ness’ mom laughed. “Okay, okay, just maybe go to the principal’s office next time instead of where ever else you went?” Tracy decided to add her two cents next. “So what’s his punishment?” “Tracy, no one should get punished for doing the right thing! Now, if he got caught skipping to go shopping on the 6th floor of the department store with his girlfriend right before it burnt down,” she made direct eye contact with Ness. “that would be a different story. But unless there’s anything you want to say Tracy,” Tracy said nothing, knowing that whatever reason she wanted Picky over yesterday would be found out if she told. “there’s not a problem.” Geez, mom was good. “Now, dinner’s almost ready, so wash up!”

 

After dinner, when Ness went to his room, he found Ninten sitting up with the lights off on Ness’ bed. Great, guess he claimed it. Ness was about to close the door,when Ninten said quietly “Ness?”. Ness turned on the light, and went in the room, closing the door behind him. “Yes?” “You want to tell me what actually happened today?” “What are you talking about? We went in the air vents, sat in there all day, then came back down. End of story.” “Ness?” “Yeah?” “You know I’m psychic right? And I’m more than capable of reading your mind.” “What?” “Goodnight Ness. Turn off the light on your way out. And with that, Ninten laid down and turned on his side. Ness could hear snoring. He turned off the light and went to sleep on the living room couch… … … He couldn’t sleep! He’d been sleeping for days and he knew it too! That’s it! He knew what he was doing.

 

He quietly got dressed then snuck over to the apartment next to theirs. He took out something he had borrowed from his friend a while back ago, and unlocked the door. He went inside, and took out a flashlight to start looking for something.

 

The apartment in front of him sure was weird. There were sunflowers growing EVERYWHERE! Not to mention, Ness was pretty sure those sheep sleeping in the corner were real. It’s like these people had never lived anywhere where they were too far from nature, so they brought the outdoors in. So which door was the right door? While Ness was walking around, he tripped over a dog. It whimpered and got up and licked his face. As long as it didn’t bark, Ness was okay. One of the doors stood out from the rest. It was wooden, like the others, but it was also a metal door? Like someone couldn’t decide if they wanted wood or metal so they just kind of made the door out of both. Looks like a good place to start! Ness carefully opened the door, to make as little noise as possible, and then proceeded to trip over someone. He quickly got his balance, and hoped he didn’t wake whoever it was up. He shone his flashlight to see Lloyd on the floor literally holding a mug of coffee still half full. Great place to fall asleep. Then again, Ness has slept on a bench with three other people more than once. One of which stayed up half the time because that was the only time he had to work on his adventures. Ness then decided to not think about them anymore because if he doesn’t think about them, he can’t miss them either.

 

Ness continued to look around the room, and found a bed in the back. And sleeping on that was… Claus! Perfect! Ness went over to Claus and shook him awake. When Claus finally did wake up, his red eye produced some light of its own. Well that’s cool! Ness wished his eyes did that.

 

“Hey, Ness, great to see you, but what are you doing in my house?” Claus asked. “Come on, don’t you want to see the real secret of the school and the rooms we were in?” “Hell yeah I do!” Claus started unplugging himself from various machines and stuff. The whole science lab vibe of this room didn’t really fit the rest of the theme. But Ness couldn’t help himself. “Hey Claus?” “Yeah?” “I hate to ask but I have to know. Just what are you?” “You kind of have a right to know, don’t you? Well I’m a mechanical chimera. But I prefer just being me. I’m basically a cyborg.” “Cool!” “It’d be cooler if it wasn’t used to mind control me into dooming the world.” “...” “Long story! Let’s just get going! Also, try not to wake Lloyd on the floor there. I don’t think he’s slept in like, 2 weeks.” “Okay… Hey. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. Just know… I’m here for you if you need me.” “Okay, okay, just… don’t go telling anyone else?” “Of course not.” “Also… likewise.” “Huh?” “It’s been pretty clear to me that you’ve been hiding something since we’ve first met. Also, it’s been pretty clear to my scanners… that I’m not the only psychic around here.” “...” “Uhuh. Okay, sure. Be quiet all you want, but I know. I haven’t told anyone, but just know this: you aren’t the only one.” “Who else?” “So you admit it!” “Huh?” “Don’t play dumb with me Ness Montague. I know you’re psychic. But I am too. So is Ninten, Lucas, and some of the other people I’ve seen around too. Including your over-violent girlfriend, but I bet you already knew that.” “We aren’t dating!” “...yet.” “Fine! We aren’t dating yet!” “But you will be!” “Augh!” “Hehehehehe.”

 

The two boys carefully stepped over the sleeping Lloyd and starting walking towards the way out. But the dog smelled Claus then started barking loudly. “Boney! Shh! I’m just getting a glass of water! Go back to sleep.” Claus lied to the dog. Then he added to Ness “I swear Lucas trained him to catch me sneaking out. I’d better starting going through the window or something for now on.” Lucas burst out from a different door. “Claus! Where are you going?” “C’mon Lucas, just for a little stretch! Scientist always tells me it’s not good to stay cramped up for long, and I haven’t used my wings and weeks Lucas! Just let me go this once!” “...With Ness?” “Yeah, I figured I’d practice carrying heavy objects while flying, and I don’t know anyone heavier than Ness!” “HEY!” Ness butted in. Lucas sighed and shook his head. “You know you need a full 10 hours of sleep! And we both know you aren’t really going just to stretch your wings. Plus, do you really need to stretch jetpacks?” “If I don’t want them to stall next time I use them!” “I’m sure you can talk to Lloyd about that. Goodnight Claus.” Claus muttered something then went to bed, and Lucas said “I know you have good intentions, and it’s great to see him making friends, but he really needs his rest. He just gets so exhausted doing everything he does! Plus, well, it’s not really a good idea for him to go out, by himself or with others. He just always seems to find trouble.”

 

Ness decided it would be a good idea to respect Lucas’ wishes, but he had to do one thing. Before he left he said “I’d hate the idea that I was trapped like a prisoner in my own house, the only people keeping me there being my family. And I doubt I’m the only one who’d feel that way. Especially if something traumatic had happened recently that I just wanted to try to forget about for a little bit. Well, have a good night Lucas.” And Ness left Lucas alone with his thoughts. Then Ness waited at the window for a moment, and sure enough, there was a knock at it.


	7. Eating lemons, orange style!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ginten sure is weird!

Ness began to wonder how Claus could possibly be at his window when they were on the tenth floor. But, when he opened the window, Claus was out there supported by two mechanical looking wings that had jetpacks. Because of course you need both wings AND jetpacks.

 

“Ready to go?” Claus asked. “Yeah… how exactly am I supposed to get down safely using a window?” “Like THIS!” Ness realized he was standing far to close to the window because Claus grabbed his arms and pulled him right outside. Ness then proceeded to hang from only his arms above Fourside’s midnight traffic. “Claus… don’t you dare drop me!” “There’d have to be something going pretty wrong if I did!” Claus did a couple loop-de-loops, making Ness have to focus on not losing his dinner. Then finally, Claus touched down at the school.

 

The school was, surprisingly, unlocked. The two went in quietly just in case there were any alarms. There were none, but there was something else. Singing. It was a beautiful little melody that sounded like a lullaby. Both Ness and Claus made eye contact before slowly sneaking towards the source of said melody. Or melodies. It really could have been broken up into eight parts for a whole game of trying to find them. But before they could get much closer, someone stopped their tracks.

 

They had short pink hair, a big mustache, and purple clothes. Ness couldn’t really decide what gender it was, though. The voice sounded masculine… and familiar. Too familiar. “What are you two doing in here? You do realize what time it is. Next time, don’t skip out on class. And as for you, commander…” They smirked. Wait, Ness recognized the voice now! “...Mr. Fassad? Is this what you do in your free time?” Claus, who was looking a little nervous, bust out laughing! “Yes, Ness, this is Fassad’s hidden identity! He’s a drag queen! Spread the word!” Fassad’s smirk changed into fury. “I’VE HEARD ENOUGH OUT OF YOU TWO!” Lightning flashed… inside the building… shockingly close to Ness and Claus. Ness didn’t think about what he was saying until after he said it. “Did you just use PK Thunder? Since when are you psychic?” Ness quickly covered his mouth. Normal people most certainly do NOT ask people if they just psychically conjured lightning. All of this crazy stuff that’s been happening lately, Ness completely forgot he had an identity to keep.

 

Fassad gave him a look for a moment. “Just who are you, anyway?” he asked, sounding like he was trying to be careful with his words. “I’m just joking… me and umm… someone were playing a game where we were psychic. It’s all pretend though.” Claus whispered in Ness’ ear “Yeah bro, smooth. He’ll never catch on now!” Fassad still barely reacted. “Answer the question.” “...Ness Montague…” “Are you serious?” Fassad asked, somewhere between angry and sincere. “You’re a Montague… you’re serious?” “Yes Ma’am… I mean Sir… I mean, umm… Fassad. Is there a problem?” Ness wasn’t sure what the deal was, but Claus was smirking. Claus then said “Hey, Locria? Sorry, I don’t think you can really punish us for breaking into school. We’ll just be on our way then…” 

 

“Not so fast, Commander.” Claus gave Fassad or whoever he said a confused look. “But… you can’t do anything to him… he’s a Montague… that’s against the Magicant Code or whatever…” What could Claus POSSIBLY know about Magicant? And what did Fassad have to do with it? Also, what’s with all of this ‘Commander this, Commander that’ stuff flying around? “Maybe I can’t do anything to him, but, after that stunt you’ve pulled with King P earlier, you coming back here now is perfect. Montague, go home. Go and get some rest. But as for you Commander…” A look of both shock and terror filled Claus’ eyes, before they went dull, and it didn’t seem like he felt anything at all. But of course Ness wasn’t going to leave his friend here! “Fassad, let him go back home! Leave him alone!” “Last chance Montague,” Fassad said in a sing-song voice. “Let him go home! I won’t leave until you do!” “Fine, you leave me no other choice. Commander! Take him somewhere safe on school grounds and lock him there!”

 

Ness was sure Claus wouldn’t but it didn’t seem like he had much choice. Before Ness knew it, Claus was carrying him, and there was no way Ness could possibly break free. Claus carried him into a storage closet and threw him onto a pile of stuff. When Ness tried the door, it wouldn’t budge.

 

He pounded and banged and yelled for what felt like hours until he attracted attention, just not the kind he wanted. The vents opened up and Ginten stuck his head out of it. “Shut up! I’m TRYING to sleep!” Ness looked up at his previous captor, and one question came to mind. “Do you live here?” Ginten’s angry expression changed into confusion with a hint of attitude. “What are you even DOING here? And it’s of no concern to you if I do or do not live here.” “...Come down here for a moment…” Ginten did, even more confusion leaking onto his face. “What do you want?” “...Just someone to talk to for a little while…” Ness sounded pathetic, but he just didn’t want to be alone. Even if his company was also his previous kidnapper for possibly weeks AKA six hours. He wanted to stay strong, but… how can he protect his friend if he can’t even open a door? Ness considered taking this chance to jump into the vents, since it was open, but figured Ginten would probably just be able to catch up to him, and tricking someone so powerful and getting caught probably wouldn’t be a good idea.

 

“No, it wouldn’t be.” Ginten said lazily. “Huh?” “Tricking me. It wouldn’t be a good idea. For you or any of your other chosen friends.” “...What?” “You heard me. And I think I’ve heard enough out of you, too. Sleep or don’t, I don’t care. Just be quiet or I’ll make you be quiet!”, Ginten threatened. Then he literally flew for no good reason into the air vent, and it shut itself. Ness heard him crawl away, and he tried to get comfortable on top of all the storage bins. He used a tarp as a blanket, and tried to fall asleep. After all, if there really wasn’t anything he could do, and if Ginten’s threat was serious (which Ness was going to assume yes at this point), he’d just have to wait it out. He slowly fell into a deep sleep, one of which he dreamed of all of his friends and their adventures in the Lost Underworld.

 

Morning came early when the closet door was opened. Ness slowly opened his eyes to see Lucas standing in front of him with an expression of shock. “Ness…?” “Yeah?” “Why were you locked in a storage closet with a desk in front of it?” Ness fully opened his eyes and memories of last night came rushing at him like a truck. “Lucas, do you know where your brother is?” “No, I don’t! That’s who I was looking for. He left a note saying that he had to be somewhere and to see him at school, but I DON’T see him! And that’s why I’m worried. Do you know where he is?” “I think… I think Fassad might still have him.” “WHAT!?” “Yeah… I tried to help but…” “I gotta go find him then!” Lucas started running, but Ness shouted “WAIT!” Lucas turned around. “Let me come too. If something bad happened… well… it’s my fault for bringing him here…” Lucas sighed and looked to the ground. “Okay, but we have to hurry”, he said, and he continued racing down the halls.

 

When they got into Fassad’s classroom, Claus was sitting at his desk, seemingly unharmed. Fassad, however, was no where to be seen. When Claus noticed Ness and Lucas, he looked up and gave a fake looking smile. Lucas wasted no time running up and hugging Claus, then proceeded to scold him. “I told you not to run off anymore, I didn’t know where you were! You could’ve gotten hurt, or lost, or even killed! ...Are you hurt?” Claus frowned and took great interest in looking at his desk. “...No. I wasn’t hurt. But I don’t think I’m going to be around much more Lucas.” “Huh?” “Umm… Por- King P wants to keep a closer eye on me, and I’m not allowed to go back to the apartment with you or dad. At all. Outside of school, and even during school I’m going to be doing much, much more for him now. And if I don’t…” Claus looked Lucas in the eyes, then quickly looked away again. “...there’s gonna be a lot more trouble for the both of us…” Claus stood up. “I have to go. I’ll see you around Lucas. And Ness, this isn’t your fault. This was going to happen weather I showed up at the school last night or not.” Claus faked another smile at the both of them, then walked away. Neither Ness nor Lucas moved. Neither of them knew what they were supposed to do at that point.

 

~~~

 

A couple weeks passed and nothing really changed. Pokey was now at school everyday, and was always commanding Claus to do something or other. Claus had been emotionless since the day he told Ness and Lucas that he’d be serving Pokey again. Ninten still lived in Ness’ apartment, and Ness still slept on the couch. Ness hadn’t seen Ginten since that time in the closet, and everything just fell into routine. Nothing happened. It was all so normal! Ness found himself withdrawn from everyone else, and constantly gave hopeful glances towards Claus to maybe one day see him smiling, or start laughing because the whole Pokey’s slave robot thing was all a joke. But it wasn’t. Everyday at lunch Ness saw Lucas sitting by himself too, but he didn’t really feel like talking to him. Or anybody. Ness sat with Ninten and Lloyd everyday at lunch, but he could see it in their eyes too. It’s boring. Ninten stopped grilling Ness on psychics, and even Fassad stopped avoiding the two Montagues in the class. Pokey always wanted to talk to Ness, but Ness made it a point to ignore him completely, no matter what. He couldn’t possibly forgive him for what he did to Claus. No one acted out in class, in fact, no one really even spoke in class. It was just dull. Until September rolled around, anyway.

 

It started out as a completely normal school day, like all the others have been, and everyone was sitting down ready for class. But when Fassad came in today, someone was walking behind him. Ginten. Everyone looked to Ginten, to Ninten, then back again because no one really knew what to make of him. Then Fassad said “Alright, this is a new student. Whatever. Just take a seat.” Ginten glared at Fassad, and someone in class shouted out “What’s his name?”. Fassad looked down at the papers on his desk. “Ginten Capulet. Now I said to take a seat!” Ginten walked over and took a seat from right under someone, who promptly fell to the ground. Ginten stood there holding it, apparently waiting for further instruction. Fassad stood up. “I don’t appreciate people trying to be funny in my class. I told you to SIT DOWN!” Ginten gave him a look of confusion and attitude, dropped the chair, and sat on the floor. 

 

Ness couldn’t help but let out a little snicker. Fassad, however, wasn’t so amused. “Think this is funny, Montague? Why don’t you show the class proper sitting procedures?” You know what, Ness was done with quiet boring time. So he stood up and walked to the front of the class.

 

“Hello class, so today, we will be learning the basics of sitting!” Ness said in his best kindergarten teacher voice. “Everyone please stand up.” Everyone in the class stood up, even Claus who has been completely unreachable if you aren’t Pokey for some time now. There was some giggling and laughing, so any good teacher should address that. “Remember kids: sitting is a serious matter. You will fail at life if you do not learn how to properly sit. Now, stand in front of your chairs.” Ness had seen Paula help out at Polestar Preschool millions of times, so he had to say, he was doing pretty good. Even Ginten was listening. “Okay, now, bend your knees slightly, and make sure your butt is in position to land comfortably in the chair. Then slowly and carefully lower yourself a little more and a little more until you land perfectly in the chair.” Everyone got it… except Lloyd who fell halfway through. Ness felt bad but he couldn’t help but letting out a little chuckle. Then he said, “Now, now, Lloyd, it’s okay. Someone please help your friend up so he can try again.” And someone did. This time Lloyd was successful. “Now that’s all the time for today class. You all get a gold star in sitting exercises!” 

 

Ness returned to his seat, and glanced wistfully at the place where Claus once sat. (Pokey sat there and moved Claus by the door so he could do anything Pokey wanted quickly. It also meant he wasn’t in the rows with the others.) Ness wondered what Claus would have said about Ness taking Fassad’s sarcasm literally like that. But a flash of mischief filled Ness. “Hey Ginten?” “What?” “There’s an empty spot here. Why don’t you sit here with me?” Ginten looked at Ness, then at Pokey. Pokey had a shocked look and was saying something, but Ness blocked it out. Ginten caught on quickly. Ginten walked over there, whispered something in Pokey’s ear, then pushed him out of the chair. Ginten sat in yet another uncomfortable looking position, and ignored anything Pokey might be saying. That’s when Claus got involved.

 

Claus walked up to Ginten and transformed one of his arms into an arm cannon. He pointed the arm cannon right at him, but Ginten didn’t seem the least bit scared. “Too scared to do things yourself, so you send your toy after me? Not very smart, Porky.” Ginten stood up and pushed Claus’ hand down to his side. Then, Claus passed out.

 

Fassad face-palmed. Ness, Ginten, you two go up to the front office and get the nurse. Scientist, look at him until they get back. Lloyd got up and approached Claus, so apparently he was Scientist. Ginten started walking towards the door, so Ness followed. When they got out in the hall, Ginten started laughing. Ness just looked at him. Ginten decided to clarify. “I warned Porky not to mess with me, and he relies on that thing now. That THING just happens to have one of the most powerful psychic abilities a human can learn!” Ginten had a proud smile. Ness was going to assume he was going to try to use Claus for himself. “So what? At least I’ll use his potential to it’s best.” Ginten kept walking, and completely ignored the fact that he just openly read Ness’ mind. “I didn’t ignore it, I just didn’t care.” Oh.

 

When they reached the front office, Ginten turned right back around like someone who just saw someone else they’d rather not see. “I did not!” Ness forgot Ginten could read his mind. But it seemed like someone had heard them, because she got up and started approaching the two standing in the hall. “She did WHAT?” Ginten shouted, most definitely alerting whoever that was to his presence. “SHUT UP!”

 

“Umm… hello. Can I help you with something?” Ginten turned around to see the lady that Ness had been watching the entire time. Ginten then proceded to push Ness out of the way and run off. Ness was left confused. So he decided to deal with getting the nurse for now. “Hey, umm… who are you?” Ness couldn’t help it. He had to know who could have possibly agitated Ginten so badly just by being around. “Oh, I haven’t introduced myself, have I? I’m the principal. But please, just call me Mary.” A principal who goes by their first name? That’s a little weird. But that really shouldn’t bother Ginten so much. “Mary, do you know where the nurse is?” That sure did sound weird to talk to a principal like that. “Yes, of course. Did someone get hurt?” “Yeah… in Mr. Fassad’s room.” “Okay, well, go ahead and head back, and I’ll send the nurse your way. Anything else?” “Nope.” “Okay, have a nice day Ness.” Ness didn’t realize that he never told her his name until after he had gotten back to the classroom.

 

When the nurse got to the classroom, she freaked out claiming there wasn’t a pulse. Then Lloyd whispered something in her ear, and she said there was nothing she could do so it was probably caused by stress and exhaustion. She recommended that he went home right away. When Pokey protested, Ginten stepped in and told him something, which caused a temper tantrum at Pokey o’clock. Ness assumed that was when Ginten claimed Claus for himself or something. Ness sighed. Poor Claus can never catch a break, it seems. Ness had no idea what could possibly make Pokey listen to anybody, though, much less a new kid like Ginten. But it seemed that he did. The nurse apparently told Lucas about what was going on, because he quickly ended up in the classroom, hugging his brother as tightly as he could. Eventually, Claus woke up.

 

Claus wasted no time pushing himself up off the ground, and Lucas helped as much as he could. “Lucas?” Claus began. “Lucas, I’m so tired…” A look of shock filled Lucas’ face. “Claus, please, please, we’ll get over this!” But Claus was already laughing. “Yeah, we’ll get over this if I actually get a reasonable amount of sleep!” “Not funny Claus!” “It was totally funny!” So apparently Claus gets over things fast. He was already joking around! Ness wondered how he did it. Here he had been, moping for the past month about missing his friends and then Claus, and Claus just bounces back from weeks of hard labor from Pokey, who probably had him do all sorts of crazy things. Ness began to feel like he’s been acting a little spoiled… but, still, it had to be hard on him, even if he won’t show it. 

 

Ness debated whether to warn them now or later about Ginten’s plans. “How about you don’t tell them at all?” Goddamn mind readers. Ness turned around to face Ginten. Wait, how can he read minds? “Because I’m psychic.” Well Ness figured that, but Ness wondered why Ginten could read minds but he couldn’t. “Because I’m a better psychic than a fifth generation human.” Also, what was with that boy and his way of talking? “You got a problem with it?” Yes! Ness did! He also had a problem with not being able to think, or even have a single paragraph describing Ginten without having interruptions!!! “Then get stronger so you can block me out.” Ness decided he would. “Good luck with that.”

 

Eventually, since the class was already in chaos and Fassad was AWOL, Claus and Lucas’ dad showed up, whose name was apparently Flint. The three of them left, presumably to go home, and they took the chaos with them. Everything quieted down after that, and class was normal until it was time for lunch.

 

At lunch, Ginten had sat where Ness, Lloyd, and Ninten usually sat, so Ninten said that they should sit there anyway. In fact, Ninten ended up right next to Ginten, who glared at him instantly. That sat in silence for a moment, just glaring at each other, before they both moved on like nothing happened. Ginten, who was sitting in yet another weird way, didn’t seem to know how to pack a lunch. He pulled out an orange, 2 lemons, a grape fruit, and some lime juice. Apparently he really like citrus. He ate it all straight up, too. He ate the lemon like you would and orange, and drank the lime juice like you would a soda. All of this, and he didn’t seem to have a problem with it. But Ness was rewarded with a glare from Ginten for thinking about how weird it was.

 

The conversation at lunch was relatively normal, Ginten giving some hot headed remarks here and there, but there was something else. Ginten and Ninten seemed to be specifically avoiding talking to each other. It was strange. “Maybe because I don’t WANT to talk to him!” Ginten said, interrupting Lloyd mid sentence. Lloyd gave him a weird look then backed down from the glare he got rewarded with in return. Ness was pretty sure Lloyd wet his pants, honestly. Ginten nodded. So apparently he did. Ninten did nothing to react to this, quiet as always.

 

After lunch, they returned to their class as usual for some job readiness assignment. But when Fassad came in, he was carrying a stack of colored paper. He handed it out to some kids, and gave Lloyd two extras to give to Lucas and Claus. Great thing Fassad is well aware of their living arrangements! Ness got one, too, and it looked like this:

 

 **Dear** Ness Montague         ,

 **Congratulations! Due to your** leadership      **skills, you have been selected to** **be a part of a play being put on by Fourside Academy! The play is Romeo and Juliet. You will be playing the part of** director          **! Please report to Topolla Theatre tomorrow at 8 am for further instruction. We can’t wait to see you there!**

 

Ness read over it a couple of times to make sure. He was being put in a play? As a director? He’s seen the Runaway Five a couple times, even made it into some of there songs, but actually being a part of something? That was completely different! Still, it would be nice to lead something again, even if it was just a play. He decided he’d do it! After all, it didn’t seem like there was actually a choice.

 

Some people in the class were a part of it, some weren’t. Ness wondered what class was going to be like when half the class was gone, but he’d much rather get out of class if he could anyway.

 

After all the papers were passed out, Fassad cleared his throat, meaning ‘shut up or pay the consequences’, so everyone shut up pretty quickly. “Now, if you don’t mind, we still have class to do.” No one responded. “Today’s after-lunch class is music class.” Ginten got up, threw his desk, and walked out. Nobody stopped him. Apparently he doesn’t like music. The rest of the class was spent mostly singing simple stuff and listening to other people’s music for tempo, beats, mood, tone, and all sorts of other crazy things you’d never notice if it wasn’t assigned to you. After class, when everyone was heading home, Pokey stopped Lloyd.

 

“Hey Scientist, your coming with me.” “W---what?” “I want a new play toy, and you’re going to make me one!” “I don’t really-” “Just do it. You don’t have a choice. Don’t bore me with all of your pretending to have a say on the matter.” Lloyd sighed. Ness decided to butt in. “Pokey, leave him alone! Can you go a day without demanding someone to do something? Or are you just incapable?” “Best friend, you noticed me!” Pokey ran towards Ness, arms open for a hug. Ness stepped out of the way, and Pokey ended up belly-flopping onto the ground. Apparently a month of being with Giygas or whatever else it is that Pokey did during that time was enough to make Pokey desperate to be friends with Ness, but Ness really wanted nothing to do with it. As Pokey started crying and pushing himself up, Lloyd said “Ness, thanks, but it’s okay. Just take these papers to the Commander and Lucas please, and I’ll do whatever Porky wants me to.” he then whispered “And maybe whatever he wants I can make entirely robot and he’ll just leave Claus alone for good.” Ness smiled at Lloyd. No matter how weak that boy acts sometimes, he was so much smarter than Ness could ever hope to be. “Well, have fun then I guess.” Ness said, as he headed towards the door. 

 

When he reached the apartment, Ness knocked on the door to Lucas’ and Claus’ apartment, and Lucas answered. “Hey Ness! If you came by to see him, Claus is doing great, but he’s asleep right now. But he’s being pretty stubborn, so he’ll probably be at school again tomorrow.” “Oh, that’s good! What… exactly happened?” Lucas paused for a moment. “...Claus is, well, I’m pretty sure you have a general idea of what he is, but he was made that way for one purpose and one purpose only. To do Porky’s bidding. Since we got to this time, Porky sent Claus on a mission to blend in to do something or other for someone or other, but the deal that Porky had fell through, so he can do what he wants again, and things started returning to normal… but now he’s okay again! And I think he’ll be okay for a little while now! As long as he stays away from Porky… Anyway, it was great seeing you, but I should get back to him.” “One more thing! You and Claus got chosen to be in some sort of play or something, so I really do hope he can come for tomorrow!” “A play? Sounds like fun!” Ness handed Lucas the papers then remembered something else. “Also, don’t expect Lloyd back tonight?” “...Why not?” “Because Pokey took him with him.” Lucas sighed. “I was hoping Lloyd could take a look at Claus. After everything that happened, he could really use some maintenance… but I’m sure it will be okay! After all, if Claus could last 3 years he can last 2 weeks… is that all?” “...Yeah. Goodnight Lucas. And try to get some sleep yourself.” “...I’ll try. Goodnight, Ness.” Lucas shut the door behind him. 3 years? Pokey had kept Claus super busy all the time, Ness couldn’t imagine even lasting one day, but 3 years? Ness shuddered to think. 3 years…

 

Ness headed inside his own apartment, had dinner, and went to bed on the couch yet again. He was starting to get tired of this. And yet, every time Ness was going to say something to Ninten, he just couldn’t find the words. Guess he just had to get used to the couch. And, well, Ninten living there. He still was the most demanding of the household, so most things went his way now. And Ness learned how to eat prime ribs in the side of his mouth so he had to taste it as little as possible, because man he hated that stuff.


	8. Nighty Night, Clausy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sweet dreams!

When Ness got to Topolla theatre the next morning he didn’t expect that there wasn’t going to be any sort of assembly whatsoever. Instead, everyone was left with a box of things which included a script, notes on how to do their job, and in some cases, gift cards for fabric and furniture stores to do so. Ness was pretty sure not all of that was going to end up going towards the play. Ness’ notes in particular told him that it was important for him to get everyone together, assign them jobs and assignments, and was basically told that if the show flops it’s his fault. But hey, better than being in class! So Ness decided to figure out where he was at.

 

Ness stepped on stage, and turned on a microphone. If he’s going to do this, he may as well do it right! “May I have everyone’s attention?” Everyone stopped what they were doing. “Hello, I’m Ness, the director. We only have today to prepare, so we’ve got to get started on things quickly. Members of the tech crew, please raise your hand.” A small number of students raised their hands. “Okay, can I have the two head technicians onstage?” Claus and the pink haired girl who gave Ness a hard time about talking to Lucas two weeks ago walked up onstage. Ness turned off the microphone for a moment to talk to them.

 

“Okay, so Claus, you’re a head technician right?” “Yeah, and apparently I’m also playing Mercutio? Whoever that is.” Ness sighed. Couldn’t they had found enough people in the school responsible enough to make sure they didn’t have to give anyone a tech job and an acting job? “Okay, and that makes you,” Ness pointed to the pink haired girl “Kumatora Osohe, right?” Ness asked, looking down at his notes and trying not to mispronounce her name. “Yeah, that’s me. But I’m not working with him”, Kumatora said, glaring at Claus. “What do you have against Claus?” “Maybe the fact that he tried to kill his brother countless times, just to get his brother apologizing to him. And all of this was so he could successfully destroy the world without anyone to stop him.” Ness looked back and forth between the two, sensing the built-up tension. “Look, whatever happened, happened. None of that really matters. What does matter is not walking onto a blank stage naked and in the dark tomorrow, okay? Just try to get along until then.” Claus and Kumatora glared at each other, but they nodded. Ness just really had to hope they got over it quickly so they could get to acting here soon. Ness then spent the next half an hour just telling people where to go to rehearse. He already knew this was going to be a mess.

 

About an hour later, Claus and Kumatora walked up to Ness bickering. Claus spoke first. “We’ve been reading the play, and Kumatora thinks that Romeo and Juliet were stupid.” “They killed themselves for no good reason!” “The reason was they wanted to be with eachother!” “It doesn’t matter if they’re DEAD!” “It does matter! Love means more than anything!” “It’s stupid to die just to be with someone else, no matter who they are!” “No, it’s not! Espacially if you have nothing else in life!” “What about Romeo’s cousin?” “...” “Did Romeo not care about him?” “Shut up! He did too! But what else was he supposed to do when his whole world came crashing down?” “Stop and think for a second!” “He’s been in nothing but thought for a long time!” “Who cares? He didn’t make the right decision!” “Only he can decide that!” Ness watched the two bicker back and forth and started to wonder whether they were still talking about the play or not. “Look!” Ness found himself shouting. “You aren’t being asked to rewrite the play! I just need you to do all of the technical stuff so there are no naked actors in the dark. Got that?” Both Claus and Kumatora looked at Ness like a deer in headlights and nodded their heads. “Good. Now go back there and PLEASE do what you have to to make this show look at least somewhat acceptable!” The two of them ran back to their places.

 

The next day, it was already the performance day. Ness was relatively sure not one person was ready to perform, but there wasn’t really a choice, now was there? The entire school was out in the audience, just waiting to see everyone make a fool of themselves. Fun, right?

 

Not one person was off book, so everyone was going to be holding their scripts onstage. Ness didn’t see a problem with that, even if it was a little tacky. At least they would say the correct lines!

 

Lloyd walked onstage for the top of the show, which surprised Ness because he wasn’t there yesterday during rehearsals. However, he looked like he was going to puke. “Umm… okay. So, there were… is this right?” Lloyd looked more and more nervous as he spoke, so he closed his eyes as he yelled out his lines. “There were two families that loved each other, and they wanted to have the children marry so they became one family, but the kids didn’t want to AHHHH!” Lloyd ran off stage as quickly as he could. Ness was very certain that was NOT how the story went, but there was no stopping it now.

 

Ginten, playing Juliet, and Ninten, playing Romeo, both walked on. This wasn’t supposed to happen yet… Ness looked at the script and realized it was a lot smaller than the previous one. Uh oh. Looks like someone changed it. Ness flipped to the character chart. The majority of the cast wasn't even in this version! Just great.

 

Ginten and Ninten walked onstage next. Then Ginten said “Oh Ninten, oh Ninten, I hate you and your family so very, very, much.” He said this in the same romantic tone Juliet would have in the actual play. Ninten went along with it though. In a similar tone, he said “Then get off this planet, for if not, I will singth you away.” Ness noticed now that neither of them had scripts. Ah. So they were the ones behind it. “Not this time, disgusting Earth creature, for I don’t care anymore!” “Care to put that to the test?” Ninten had lost the tone of voice he had been using, grabbed a handheld microphone. What was he doing? But before he could do anything, Lucas and Claus were just kind of dragged through the air onstage. “Say your lines.” Ginten said, in the type of tone that you don’t want to mess with.

 

Lucas and Claus looked at each other, then Claus picked it up like nothing happened, but saying everything in a very joking way, completely off script. “Grr, brother of mine who's not my brother in this scenario, I am… angry!” Lucas stared wide eyed, then joined in the fun. “Well, I’m angry too!” “Then let’s fight over it! DJ, I NEED A BEAT!” From up in the booth, Kumatora started playing music for a rap battle. Lucas looked wide-eyed at his brother, who was smiling from ear to ear. Then he snatched the handheld mic from Ninten and started rapping. Badly.

 

“Ergh! I’m angry! I hate your family! Or maybe, I don’t, I can’t quite tell! But anyways, I don’t like you! And I know, you expect, me to pull a sword, but instead, why don’t you get a freaking life!?” Claus said that last sentence to the audience, then passed the mic to Lucas. “Ergh! I’m angry too! But forget it, because I’m blue!” The lights switched to blue. “Because of you, I’m here instead, instead of me being, with my fake brother…” Lucas stopped rapping and asked Ginten and Ninten “Which one of you is supposed to be related to me? Or are we just friends?” Ninten pointed to Ginten, and Lucas finished his rap with “Ginten!” The crowd cheered, and the lights went off, making Claus’ glowing red eye apparent and causing quite a few screams from the audience. Then the curtain closed. That was that. Romeo and Juliet. Fourside Academy style.

 

Even the performers started cheering, laughing, and clapping. Ness was just glad that this wasn’t a graded assignment. If it was, well, Ness would probably be getting a letter somewhere between E and G. But that was that. And, since today was a “special” day, they got to go home now, even though the play only lasted like 10 minutes! Ness would just deal with the consequences of having the play fall apart on Monday.

 

While they were walking home, Claus was still laughing and joking about everything that had just happened. But then he just kind of stopped… and fell to the ground. Lucas luckily caught him before his head hit the ground, and brought him down gently. Then proceded to cry and keep calling out Claus’ name over and over. Ness had no clue what was going on. “...Lucas, what happened?” “I don’t know! He seemed perfectly fine earlier, but… I should have made him stay home until Lloyd could take a look at him!” “Then why don’t we call Lloyd now?” Lucas looked up at Ness. “...Can you watch Claus while I do that? You have to make sure nothing happens to him!” Ness nodded, and Lucas ran to the department store. Ness couldn’t feel Claus’ pulse, but he wasn’t entirely sure he was supposed to have one. When Lucas came back, he said “When I called Lloyd, Porky answered! He said that Claus would just have to ‘figure it out’, and that he would only let Lloyd fix him if he was under his control again! I don’t know the first thing about technology! What am I supposed to do?” Lucas kept crying and crying. People on the streets saw what was going on, but nobody seemed moved enough to help. Great.

 

Ness thought about this for a moment. Who else knew enough about science to… oh. Ness did know someone like that. And one way or another, he was bound to get involved with this eventually. Might as well be now. Ness picked up Claus. “Lucas, I’m going to start running. I want you to chase after me as quickly as you can.” “...Why?” “Please don’t ask any questions. I know who can help your brother, but I’d prefer you to know as little as possible about why I know him or how we get there.” Lucas looked at Ness and nodded with a confident smile. Ness started running in a straight line, though it was a little harder which Claus in his arms, and Lucas followed. They kept running, and soon PK Teleport brought them to Winters.

 

Ness handed Claus to Lucas, and ran into the nearby drug store. He picked up the phone and quickly called Jeff.

 

“Hello? Jeff Andonuts speaking.” “...Hey Jeff, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it?” “Ness? It’s been ages since we last talked!” “Listen Jeff, I’m not here for fun, as much as I would like to spend some time with you and the rest, I came here because I need help with something only you can help with.” “Like what?” “Can you sneak outside of the school? It’d be easier to show you then to tell you.” “I’m on my way!” Ness hung up, with a feeling of excitement flowing through him. He could finally see another one of his friends again! And since they were in a different country, mom would never know! But he had to be careful. Got too happy, and it would all just come crashing down on him again tomorrow that he still couldn’t see any of them on a regular basis. Ness sighed, then left the drug store to go wait with Lucas and Claus.

 

When Ness came back out, he saw Lucas huddled around Claus giving him all the heat he could possibly give to him, resulting in Lucas giving up all of his own heat to be pressed against someone who probably felt like cold metal. Lucas was a good brother. Ness walked back into the store, and bought three heavy jackets. He put one on, then walked put there and handed one to Lucas, and put the last one on Claus. “Thanks.” Lucas whispered weakly. It was pretty obvious Lucas didn’t like the cold very much. That’s when Jeff finally came over the fence.

 

“Okay Ness, what do you need my help with?” Ness… wasn’t exactly sure how to explain this in a delicate way. So, he didn’t. “Jeff, this is Claus. He’s… part robot. I think the proper term is mechanical  chi-something-or-other. He just kind of passed out and neither of us know what to do. Can you fix him?” “...A mechanical chimera? You want me to fix a mechanical chimera? I’ve… heard my father talk about them before, but I’ve never… really worked with one before… I’ll take a look though if you want.” Lucas nervously met Ness in the eye. Ness gave Lucas an encouraging nod, but he looked like he was about to cry. In fact, Ness noticed some ice on his eyelashes proving that he already has. Just perfect.

 

“Now, I know you guys will probably want to stay but…” Jeff started, Lucas’ face full of fear. “...I just think that having people around will make me mess up. I’ve always liked to do things when everyone else is asleep, so I don’t have to think about them too much… Ness, can you and Lucas go somewhere else so I can focus on working? I’ll call you as soon as I’m done, and I’ll try to fix him as well as I can! Just, I need to be by myself to do so.” Lucas looked at Ness with a terrified expression. Ness whispered “Jeff knows what he’s doing, and if he needs space, it’s best to listen to him. You can trust him. He always comes through when you need him to.” Lucas, who was now shaking, whispered “If he gets hurt, I’ll never forgive either of you…”, but he nodded. “...Let’s go Ness. I want Claus to be better as soon as possible.” Ness smiled encouragingly at Lucas. “See you Jeff. Let me know when you’re done. And thank you.” Ness grabbed Lucas’ hand, and teleported them back to Fourside.

 

“C’mon Lucas,” Ness found himself saying. “Let’s go get some icecream. Claus will be okay.” Lucas silently followed Ness through the busy streets on Fourside, until they made it to the icecream shop. Lucas looked in awe at the flavor list. “So many flavors! I don’t know what to choose!” “Have you never been here before?” “I’ve never had icecream before! But it looks so good and I’ve heard so much about it!” Ness had decided he had made a good decision bringing Lucas here, Lucas’ smile told Ness that this had taken his mind off things. “Then… why don’t we get a scoop of each?” Ness asked Lucas, and Lucas’ eyes lit up. “Every flavor?!” “Every flavor.” Lucas literally jumped up in joy. “Oh my gosh this is going to be so good!” So that’s how it ended up that both Ness and Lucas each had a giant bowl of every flavor of icecream in the store, and possibly became the cashier’s least favorite customers. The boss’ favorite, though. Ness was most certainly NOT going to be hungry for lunch, but he was okay with that.

 

After they had all their fun, they started walking back towards the apartments, and Lucas seemed to have remembered everything that was going on. “Hey Ness?”, he asked. “Yeah?” “My dad’s not going to be home until later, so… do you want to come over to my place for a bit? You don’t have to, it’s just…” “Yeah, sure. Sounds like fun.” Lucas gave Ness a small smile and they went inside his apartment.

 

“So, this is where I live now. I think you’ve seen it once but…” “It’s nice seeing it with all the lights on.”, Ness cut in.  Lucas laughed. “This is the living room, there’s the kitchen, and there’s Claus’ room, which you’ve seen, dad’s room, and over here is my room.” There apartment was kind of small, but they seemed to be just fine with that. Ness did notice, however, that there were very little modern appliances, and it seemed all the light was coming in from the large windows in every room. When they went into Lucas’ room, it had a really natural feel, and there were all sorts of drawings of a place that looked so different from anything Ness had ever seen. Wood cabins, animals, forests, everything just scream ‘natural’. “Where did you see all of that?” Ness couldn’t help but ask. “Nowhere Islands. Here’s Tazmily Village, and my old house, and the Sunshine Forest and…” Lucas burst into tears. “I’m sorry for asking? What happened?” “...Well, everything changed. And now, I don’t think we can ever go back…” “Why not?” “...It’s a long story. But it’s okay. Things will all work out in the end.” Lucas forced a smile. Ness wanted to help, he really did, but he couldn’t teleport somewhere he’s never been. That’s when the phone rang.

 

Ness picked up the phone, and Jeff asked him to come by to take Claus home.  _ That was fast  _ Ness thought, until he checked the time and saw that it had been hours since Claus had passed out. In fact, it was about the time school normally got out by. “Lucas, follow me outside. We’re going to go pick up Claus!” A genuine smile crossed Lucas’ face. They rushed out of the apartment complex, and Ness teleported them to Dr. Andonut’s lab. But when they got in there, they didn’t see anyone. Lucas was obviously worried, but it didn’t take long for a secret passage to open up and for Jeff to stick his head out. “Hey, in here.” The two boys followed Jeff down a flight of stairs into some sort of basement. Across the stone walls were blueprints for all sorts of creations, and the three went down the creaky wood steps. “I found this while exploring my dad’s lab once,” Jeff explained. “There’s all sorts of crazy things down here, and I don’t think he ever comes down here. So I made it my own lab of sorts. What do you think?” “I think it could use some renovations.” Ness mumbled, then said louder “Looks good. You sure he doesn’t know about it though?” “If he does, he never comes down here. Maybe he just forgot about it.” Jeff shrugged.

 

When they came to the bottom of the long staircase, the whole place was decked out in technology unlike anything Ness had ever seen before. He supposed it kind of reminded him of the Starman Base, but… different? “Jeff, where did you get all of this?” “Most of it was here when I found it. I don’t know where it came from, but it sure is high tech!” Ness kept looking around, until he spotted Claus suspiciously staring at some of the things in the room. Apparently Lucas had spotted him too, because he ran up and hugged his him. “Hey Lucas, what’s up?” Claus asked, somewhat weakly. “Claus, are you alright?” “I’m fine Lucas, really. I think I just didn’t get enough sleep last night or something, that’s all. Really I’m alright.” Lucas looked unconvinced, then asked Jeff “So what happened?” “Well, part of it was stress, and part of it was that some of his wires were out of place. Specifically the ones connecting his wings to his back, and they started pulling on some of his nerves and, well, I’ll spare you the details. But needless to say, he will be alright now so long as he gets some rest.” Lucas looked at his brother with eyes full of worry. “Why didn’t you say anything? You must have felt it! And stress? Why were you so stressed?” Claus looked to the ground. “It’s fine, Lucas. I told you, I’m fine. I thought I could handle it, and I guess I couldn’t. I just…” Claus trailed off. Then he looked up and smiled. “So, you ready to go back? Y’know, maybe we could explore the next town over. I heard there’s ghosts there and-” “Claus! When we get home, you need to rest! I know you don’t want to, but it’s important!” Lucas cut in. Claus looked down again, like a little kid who just got told they can’t have a puppy. “Okay, let’s just go back. But it’s not home.” he said, mostly to the ground. Ness felt pity for the boy. All he wanted to do was have fun, it wasn’t his fault he was like this. Ness was unbelievably mad with Pokey right now. There’s no doubt that he was behind the stress and loose wires, and probably much more than Ness knew. “C’mon, let’s go back to Fourside.” Ness found himself saying softly, his mind still racing with thoughts about what he could do to help, or exactly how much Pokey was responsible for. 

 

He teleported back, brought the twins home, then went home himself. Apparently Tracy had invited Picky, because he was here now for no apparent reason. But Ness’ mom had questions. “Ness, school got out hours upon hours ago. Where were you?” Ness hoped he didn’t have any snow or anything anywhere, because that’s hard to explain like nothing when it’s fall in a warm city. It didn’t even feel like fall, much less winter! “...I was just hanging out with some friends.” “Which friends?” Ness’ mom asked, and Ness realized just how suspicious ‘friends’ sounded, coming from him. “Lucas and Claus. The twins who live next door.” “And what exactly were you doing?” “...Getting icecream.” “For 6 hours?” “We did other stuff too, like-” “Hey Ness?” Tracy cut in. Uh oh. This could be trouble. “Me and Picky were at the icecream shop. We saw Lucas there, but not Claus. How can you explain that?” Ness hadn’t even bothered looking around first! “...Because we met up with Claus later! Yeah!” “Didn’t he pass out on the way home?” Ness really wanted to punch his sister right now. Is punching your sister against the Hero Code? “...W-well, he… just needed some sleep! Then he was good as new!” In the corner of his vision, Ness saw Ninten narrow his eyes. Creepy! When Ness turned to look over there, Ninten wasn’t there anymore. When he looked back, Ninten was standing right next to him! Ness recoiled a little in shock, then began to wonder how Ninten could possibly be doing any of this. Ninten shook his head.  _ If you’re going to lie, lie better. _ Ness screamed. What the hell?! Ness then remembered Ninten was psychic. Ness just didn’t know what to make of him! One moment he’s silent and passive, the next he expects something. This time he was trying to be helpful, but still!

 

Everyone was looking at Ness with worried expressions. He realized he had just screamed with no obvious reason, and likely looked insane. Just great. He decided to press on his point. “Is there something wrong with spending time with friends?” Ness’ mom gave Ness a look that was almost sympathetic. But her voice was harsh. “Yes. You spending time with friends that I don’t know  is wrong. I’d like to meet them, and if they don’t seem like heros who want to save the world, then you can do whatever you want with them. Ness, why don’t you invite your friends over for dinner. If they’re normal, then you can spend as much time with them as you want. However, if they aren’t… I’m sorry, Ness, I really am. But you can’t let yourself stand out any more than you have already.” Ness looked at his mother wide-eyed. Was she really going to do this? He finally made new friends, friends that he wasn’t ‘fated’ to make, and she was about to take that all away. Ness wasn’t worried about Lucas. Lucas was normal. But Claus? “...I’ll go get them, then.” Ness slowly walked to the door, and went out of it. He knocked on his neighbor’s door, and Lucas answered.

 

“Hey Ness, what’s up?” Lucas was smiling, like nothing bad had happened that day at all. But then when he saw Ness’ expression, he said “Hey, whatever it is, it’ll work out. It always does. Why don’t you come in?” Ness came in and sat down without saying a word. He was never really the crying type, but, it just all came out. He started crying, and crying, and he knew it was petty but he finally had friends again, and yet… Lucas pulled Ness into a hug. He didn’t know what was going on, heck, Ness barely even KNEW Lucas, and yet he was being so nice to him! Claus, who apparently heard all of this, came out of his room. “Ness, I never took you for the crybaby type. That’s Lucas’ job.” Ness looked up at Claus, who had that mischievous smile he always did. You know what, Ness stopped crying, and stood up suddenly, knocking Lucas back. He was going to take charge here! One dinner, right? Can’t be so bad! If he can SAVE THE WORLD, he can make his friends look like normal people!

 

“Okay, we’ve got one shot at this, so we have to make it good!” Lucas and Claus exchanged confused looks. “My mother is unconvinced that I can have friends who qualify as ‘normal’. Maybe you don’t, but we are going to make this work!” Claus burst out laughing. “Hold one, you want me to seem ‘normal’? That’s a new one!” Lucas whispered “Claus, don’t be rude!” Ness sighed. “I know this is going to be difficult, but we CAN make this work! My mom says if you guys can go one dinner seeming normal to her, we can stay friends, and if not… well… then we’ll figure it out. But let’s try to make this work!” Lucas and Claus just gave him a VERY confused look. “I’m sorry you guys are going to have to do this, but… please, just one night? Then you guys can do what you want.” Claus spoke up first. “Well, I have nothing better to do. Okay. Let’s do this!” Lucas added in “Of course I’ll do it! So how exactly are we going to do this?” Ness smiled, the leadership of his past taking the front wheel.

 

“Okay, Claus, you have an eye condition called heterochromia if anyone asks. It basically means you have two different colored eyes, which you do. Let’s just hope nobody sees your red eye glow.” Claus laughed, but nodded. “Lucas, I get the feeling that you don’t really know your way around technology, do you?” “No, not really… and I’d prefer to keep it that way.” “Okay, so, didn’t you once tell me you grew up in a rural area? Just say that if anyone asks.” Lucas nodded, obviously thankful he didn’t have to lie. “Okay, if anyone does see anything… robotic from you Claus, you’re in a play and you’re practicing being in character at random. And can you try to tone down that adventuring spirit just a little? That last thing my mom wants me to do is go on adventures right now. Can you?” Claus sighed, but nodded. “So basically, be as boring as possible without being so boring I’m robotic stiff or suspicious.” “Yeah, exactly.” “Okay, I got it.” After a couple more minutes of planning, the three made their way over to Ness’ apartment, with their ultimate goal being to NOT save the world.


	9. When Pigs Fly...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You should behead them. Gosh, pigs suck!
> 
> ~Claus

Ness let the twins into his apartment, and immediately regretted it because Picky was still here. There’s not a problem with Picky, per say, but a problem with… he honestly had no clue what the problem with Picky was. The twins just didn’t seem to like him very much. Lucas had a terrified expression, and Claus just seemed to stiffen-up. “Umm… how about we go to my room?” Ness tried. Lucas nodded, not taking his eyes off Picky, and gently pulled his brother by the hand to Ness’ room.

 

When they got away from Picky, Lucas sighed in relief and Claus snapped out off whatever the heck kind of trance he was in. Ness looked around at his room, covered in maps and globes of the world. He hadn’t been in here in a while since Ninten claimed it, and he forgot how much he missed being around the artifacts of his adventures. He realized that Lucas and Claus could see proof of his adventures too, but he didn’t mind as much. It seems like they have their own kind of story to tell. Claus was the first to start snooping. Ness didn’t feel a need to stop him, even if Lucas was and getting ignored, and Claus just ended up silently searching everything, as if looking for something. Then his eyes fell upon a key Ness had shoved in his desk. “What’s this?” Claus asked. “Oh, nothing. Just a key to a house I bought in my home town. One day I’m going to move back there and renovate it. That’s the plan anyway.” “You own a house?” “Yeah sure. It has an ocean view and an open layout.” “That’s pretty cool.” Claus carefully put the key back where he found it, and kept snooping. Lucas seemed a little reserved, but Ness said “Go ahead, look around if you want.” “You sure?” “Yeah, go ahead.” Lucas smiled, and started looking around too. Ness couldn’t blame them. He had a lot of exotic stuff in here, especially for someone who's stayed in one place their entire life like Lucas seems to have. Eventually Lucas stumbled upon Ness’ photo album. “Who were these people?” Claus quickly looked up. “Oooo! Let me see!” The two twins crowded around the photo album, looking at all the evidence of Ness’ adventure. Ness should have stopped them, but… he just stood there, and took interest in one of his globes. When the two had seen all the photos, Claus was the first to ask. “What was all of that about? What were you doing?” Ness looked at him mysteriously, took the photo book, and put it back in the drawer it belongs in. “I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about.”  Claus smiled back, in a mischievous way, and Lucas looked confused. Ness figured Lucas has lived the majority of his life openly and didn’t really know much about keeping secrets. Gosh, he’s so lucky.

 

“So Ness?” Claus asked. “Yeah?” “Can we snoop in your sister’s room?” Lucas quickly looked up at his brother. “Claus! That’s not nice! You can’t just go through other people’s things without their permission!” “I won’t TAKE anything. And nobody ever stopped me from poking around where I don’t belong before!” “Well that’s only because…” Lucas stopped abruptly, as if he just remembered something. He looked kind of sad, but Claus was in good spirit. “Lighten up Lucas! I’m alright for now, so that’s all that matters!” Lucas gave his brother a sad smile. Ness still wasn’t completely sure exactly what happened that led to Claus being a mechanical what's-it-called, but he had a feeling this had something to do with that. Lucas always seemed so quiet about it, but honestly Ness figured just being around Claus for long enough would give him all the answers (mostly because he’s so loud about everything), and so far, it has. Ness quickly directed them over to his sister’s room before she could finish playing her board game or whatever with Picky and come back in here.

 

Ness hadn’t been in Tracy’s new room much either, mostly because she wouldn’t let him in. The explosion of bright pink was enough to tell Ness and his two friends exactly what they were getting themselves into, however. “Basic, huh?”, was the first thing Claus said. Lucas rewarded his brother with a glare for his rudeness, but didn’t decide to give it verbal acknowledgement, possibly because he felt the same way. Tracy had never been very unique, despite the fact she used to work for Escargo Express back when things were different. Unsurprisingly, she had never shown signs of being psychic or fated for anything, unlike Ness who developed his PSI almost immediately. Ness was okay with that though, as it made him seem cooler in contrast. Which was true, because being psychic was awesome! Ness realized he should probably be focused on the plot instead of his own thoughts, because Claus had proceded to knock things over and was making a pretty big mess. Ness was going to say something, but he figured Tracy could just deal with it later. After all, she did kind of throw him under the bus earlier, so whatever comes of this is her fault. Ness decided to join the fun too, throwing things out of drawers and seeing if there was anything interesting. But no, just dolls and mirrors and make-up and girl stuff. Kind of boring. But that’s when Lucas tripped over seemingly nothing.

 

“Hey Lucas, you okay?” Claus helped his brother up, who began to cry over falling onto a pile of pillows that Claus had stripped off the bed earlier. “You’ll be fine! C’mon Lucas, that was nothing!” Claus said with a roll of his eyes, playfully pushing him back onto the pile of pillows. Ness turned and checked the place Lucas tripped. Was one of the floorboards loose? Ness messed around with it, and it came up easily. Underneath it was a large green hook, and some other stuff Ness had never seen Tracy have before. “Hey guys, come look at this.” The other two crowded around, Lucas forgetting his “injury”, and they looked at all the weird objects. Ness picked up a pink back-pack, which contained a map of some forign place, a compass, some food, and some other assorted items. There was also a red and pink striped shirt with white shorts. “I guess she just wants to play pretend like we did together when we were kids. ...I guess when I left her she and Picky just… got really close because no one else was around…” Ness felt a pang of guilt as this sunk in. Before everything, he and Tracy, would always play games about adventures and heroes, and sometimes Picky and Pokey even joined in. Ness remembered that he always played hero and made Tracy be his side-kick more than anything else. But it was always so fun! And then, when it wasn’t a game anymore, she didn’t even really get to do that, now did she? She just constantly had to watch as he became the hero she always wanted to be… No wonder she’s been so bitter ever since he came back. What kind of hero forgets about his sister just like that? Ness sighed. He was about to say they should probably clean up the mess they made, but that’s when Tracy came in.

 

“Ness! Get out of my room! What were you-” Her eyes widened in horror when she realized that they had found her secret compartment. “How could you? Get out of my room and don’t you dare say a word about anything you saw in here, you hear me? Any of you!” Claus got a defiant look in his eyes, but Ness shook his head. Claus, although puzzled by Ness’ new change of attitude, he listened and didn’t fight back like Ness had asked. The three boys stood up and left, headed back towards Ness’ room.

 

“Since when do you listen to her?” Claus asked, an almost angry tone sinking into his voice. “We were finally getting somewhere interesting! C’mon!” Ness sighed and looked at his mechanical friend. So much obviously happened to him, and yet he continues to live life as if someone had pushed pause on a movie, and any changes didn’t matter when they pushed play again. It was a quality Ness envied. “Because I left her here alone for a long time. If she wants to move on, who am I to stop her?” Claus calmed down and looked towards the ground guiltily. Lucas said “I’m sorry. Maybe we shouldn’t…” “No it’s fine.” Ness interjected, knowing where this was going. “She does the same thing to me. She always snoops through my stuff. I guess she’s just embarrassed I found out about her little game of pretend, that’s all. She’ll get over it.” Claus laughed. Lucas obviously felt bad, but he let out a small smile of his own.

 

But Claus had something else on his mind. They had been talking in Ness’ room for awhile, and Claus brought it up. “Why was little Minch here?” “You mean Picky?” “Yeah, whatever his name was. What was he doing here?” Lucas’ eyes widened, but Ness didn’t really see the problem. “I dunno. He and Tracy seem to get along pretty well, I guess. Picky’s brother disappeared about two months from now, and I… had to do something as well. We lived next door, so I figured the two just got really close for lack of anything better to do with their time.” “You two were next door neighbors?”, Lucas asked, much more forcefully than usual. “Yeah? Picky was cool, I guess.” “He’s talking about Porky.” Claus said grimly. “Porky? You mean Pokey? What’s his deal with you anyway?” “Doesn’t matter. How close were you?” “Gosh! I couldn’t stand him! He’s even worse now that he’s clingy!” “Well, what do you know about him?” Ness looked at Claus. His eyes were dull, somewhat lifeless. He wasn’t under control, but he wasn’t exactly fluid either. He was just kind of… stiff. Lucas looked a little worried, but he didn’t really act upon it. He just sat there and watched. Claus’ voice held no emotion, and it gave Ness an uneasy feeling. “...He was a kid, just like me. And now he’s a monster. And I think… that it’s my fault.” Ness said, his stomach sinking. It really was, wasn’t it? The kid who once wanted to be his friend, practically begged for it in his own way, was the one person Ness never even tried to save. And he was the one person who needed it the most.

 

~~~

 

Teddy watched the security feed with annoyance. He missed the play because it wasn’t being held at the school! Why weren’t there any cameras anywhere else? His thoughts returned to the time he spent carefree at Valentine, running around with the BB gang and performing at the theatre. But then, Ninten came and everything changed. Ninten had performed in that play he missed. How much would it take to get him to come save him from this place? A nostalgic smile crossed Teddy’s face. Where would they go this time? Who would they save? What would they do? Teddy fidgeted with his Katana. Would he get to fight battles worth fighting again? He stood up, and walked out of the security room. Would he get to have his mind back to himself when Ninten came to save him?

 

~~~

 

The silence had grown thick, and Ness wasn’t really sure how to clear it. Claus hadn’t stopped staring at him, and it was beginning to get a little frightening. Okay, it was more than just frightening to have a half robot with a glowing red eye staring at you silently and unmoving for like five minutes. “Dinner’s ready!” Ness heard his mom call. Claus snapped out of whatever he was doing, and his usual mischievous smile returned. “Food? Finally! I’m starving!” Lucas tried to hide his worried look, and Ness silently thanked his mom for changing the subject for him. The three filed out of the room and came around the dinner table. “Ness, could you go get your sister?” his mom asked. Ness knew exactly what was going on. Ness’ mom was using Tracy’s absence as an excuse to pressure the other two into exposing their entire life’s story to her. We’ll just see how that works out for her, considering Ness barely knows that much about them, and he’s had almost a month now (if you count Claus’ weird robotic slave time), and she had less than a minute. He was just going to slip into his sister’s room, and… oh crap. She’s not there.

 

Ness walked back into the dining room, where the awkward silence being held was not helped by Ninten’s arrival to the table. “Mom?” Ness asked. “Yes?” “Tracy isn’t in her room.” “...She didn’t come out of it... “ “Well she wasn’t-” That’s when Tracy came into the dining room. “Sorry I took so long. I had to take Picky home.” Ness’ mom didn’t seem very happy about this arrangement. “Tell me before you leave the house! And I didn’t even see you leave!” “...We snuck out…” Ninten’s eyes narrowed. “Where were you really?” He asked, in a very serious voice that should scare anyone into telling him the truth. “I told you, taking Picky home.” “No, you weren’t. You didn’t leave your room.” “I told you, I snuck out!” “Unless you jumped out the window, you didn’t leave. I was keeping an eye on your door the entire time.” “Can’t we just eat?” “Not until you answer my question.” Ninten’s voice was still as cool as it started, not a hint of anger in it. And yet, Ness just wanted to run for his life screaming from the strong and dangerous force that is Ninten. The twins were sitting there silently, watching this whole thing play out back and forth. Tracy was sweating a little and seemed a little unnerved. Ness spoke up, unaware of the chain reaction this was going to cause. “Is this about that green hook thing I found under your floor boards? Tracy, stop playing games like that! Fourside is a dangerous place!” Ninten gave Tracy a curious look. Ness didn’t think he had ever seen Ninten look curious in the slightest, but here he was. “Show me the Onyx Hook.” Tracy’s eyes widened, if that was even possible at this point. “Onyx Hook? What’s an Onyx Hook?” Ness’ mom looked furious. “That’s not a toy, Tracy! I told you not to touch my stuff! Now bring it out here and give it to me.” “It’s not yours, it’s mine! I didn’t touch anything in the closet you always keep locked! I don’t even know how to open it!” Ness had absolutely no clue what was going on, and the twins didn’t seem to either. The chaos that erupted from one simple comment was suspicious, to say the least. Onyx hook? What’s the deal with that. Ness glanced over to the twins. Lucas was surprised and a little uneasy, and Claus… wasn’t there. Ness hadn’t noticed him get up, but he was gone.

 

Ness silently tapped Lucas’ hand, and pointed to the seat Claus was at. Lucas looked over there, and looked back at Ness with a horrified expression. Ness had a couple guesses where he could have went, and gave Lucas a hand signal to follow him. He then quietly stood up and snuck towards Tracy’s room. He thought he had gone unnoticed, but when he did a last check to make sure no one had noticed, Ninten met him in the eye, but didn’t say anything. Ness quickly snuck into Tracy’s room, thankful for Ninten’s quietness.

 

When they got in there, Claus was, unsurprisingly, sitting on the floor examining the green hook Tracy had referred to as an “Onyx Hook”. “Claus! Say something before you run off!” Lucas scolded. Claus rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’m in SO much danger here! I coulda tripped over the loose floor boards or something like you did. Who knows what could have happened?! Thank you for saving me!” Ness stifled a laugh. Lucas, however, wasn’t so amused. “Say something next time! What if something really did happen?” “Okay, if New Pork City crashes through the building and Fassad tries to take me away, I’ll let you know.” There was a silent moment, no one said a word and looked at the window, half expecting it to happen now. When nothing did, Lucas continued “This isn’t a joke! Something really could-” Just then a stuffed pig crashed into the window. It didn’t brake the window, but it did land on the windowsill. The twins’ eyes widened, and Claus slowly crept up to the window. Much to Lucas’ dismay, Claus flung it open and looked outside. “There’s no one out here.” he said, and he picked up the stuffed pig. He checked underneath it, and there was messy handwriting in permanent marker that said “ **Bring my brother home, loser!”** No one said a thing. Ness figured it was Pokey who sent it, due to his apparent new love of pigs. But how? Ness looked out the window. There really was no one out there. Well, no one but the NPCs walking around the city, but they didn’t really count. Claus grabbed the pig plush without looking at it, and ripped it’s head off. He then proceeded to sit back down and pick up where he left off in examining the Onyx Hook.

 

~~~

 

Training by sword fights is more than okay, but training by doing things he can’t actually do? Not okay. Teddy remembered Ginten’s smug little face when Teddy couldn’t use PSI yet again. Of course he couldn’t! He wasn’t psychic! He really wished Ginten didn’t steal Ninten’s name, face, and style. Why, when he gets his hands on him he’s gonna… _do nothing because he’s better than Ninten in every way._ Teddy glared over at Ginten. Playing his mind tricks again. He was NOT better than Ninten! _Even if he’s much more powerful, strong, clever, smart, and could pretty much do anything to Ninten’s weak little human body and mind._ Teddy clenched his fists. _And then punched himself in the face for even considering such a thing._ Teddy really did hit himself, likely due to Ginten’s ability to mind control. He sighed. He wondered how long it took to learn PSI. He then directed his mind to random things. Strawberry tofu. That stuff’s good, isn’t it? He let his mind dwell on strawberry tofu, then quickly burst out “Take a melody-” A psychic force threw his against a wall, shutting him up. He expected as much, but it was worth a shot.

 

~~~

 

Ness tried to pay attention to the Onyx Hook, but something was up. Didn’t Tracy say that Picky went home? Why did Pokey just ask for him? Also, Ninten did say that he didn’t actually see Tracy leave… Ness picked up the body of the decapitated plushie and silently left the room. It’s not that he didn’t want to be followed, just simply that he didn’t see the need to be. When he went out into the dining room, Tracy and his mom were still arguing, and they hadn’t even noticed that Ness left. So they were both startled when Ness started talking. “Hey Tracy, where’s Picky?” “I told you! At home!” “Not according to this.” Ness threw the decapitated pig to his sister, stuffing flying out of it and just barely missing Ninten’s head. Ninten gave a glare but seemed too intrigued to do anything more than that. “I don’t know, I thought he went home.” “Ninten, didn’t you say you didn’t see anyone leave?” Ninten nodded. “Well then Tracy, I’ll ask you again. Where. Is. Picky?” Tracy’s eyes nervously darted around the room, as if she was physically looking for some excuse. Then there was a scream from Tracy’s room.

 

Ness, Tracy, their mom, and Ninten all ran to Tracy’s room. When they got in there, Lucas was watching in horror as Claus looked curiously at… a rift in space… yeah… Ness was pretty sure that wasn’t adding to their normal points. Ninten spoke up, in his normal straight-forward tone, “Give me the Onyx Hook.” Claus looked at him like he had just grown a second head. “Since when do you tell me what to do?” Ness face-palmed. This was going to be a problem. “I’m going to say it again. Give me the Onyx Hook.” Lucas read the situation, and pitched in. “Claus, maybe you should just give him the Onyx Hook. We don’t know what it could do and-” “Lucas, don’t you know how much I hate people ordering me around like I’m some kind of slave robot? I’ll give it to him if I want to. And I really don’t want to. So I’m going to keep it, and I’m going to see what’s on the other side.” And with that, Claus went through the rift in space, and it closed. He left a strong feeling of dread and an even stronger silence behind him.

 

~~~

 

Ginten was obviously agitated, it was just a question of what it was this time. Teddy knew it wasn’t his because of his singing earlier- it wasn’t the first time he tried. It was something else. Teddy considered asking _but he knew Ginten was just going to tell him sooner or later if it had anything to do with him. And it didn’t. But Ginten had a mission for him anyway._ “I want you to find the Onyx Hook and bring it to me.” Teddy thought about that for a moment. Onyx Hook? He could’ve sworn he’s heard of it before. “That’s because you have. Ninten had it at one time. And now somebody else does, and you’re going to bring it to me. Also, if you think about betraying me, I’ll know, so I suggest you do as I say.” Teddy rolled his eyes, an action that would have been lost to his pointy shades if he wasn’t dealing with a psychic. He’d do it, he decided. Anything to get out of this dump for a little while. _He’d do it whether he wanted to or not._

 

~~~

 

Ninten started laughing. Everyone quickly turned to him because it was a sound they had never heard before. Also, he was laughing as someone he knew disappeared into who-knows-where. He looked at them, then instantly stopped and returned his serious look to his face. Ness was the first one to actually start talking. “So… Tracy, what just happened?” A look of grave surprise was on her face. “...He went to Magicant…” “Magicant?!” Ness shouted, but his mom didn’t seem surprised at all. Instead, in a calm voice, she asked “Tracy, what were you doing in Magicant?” Tracy’s eyes darted to the side. “Nothing…” “Tracy!” “Okay, okay, just… exploring. Afterall, they did welcome me there to do what I want…” Was Ness the only one who saw a problem with this?! Okay, well, Lucas was crying in a corner, but that didn’t qualify as ‘a problem with Magicant being the next hot touring spot’. “How could you possibly go to Magicant? It’s my mind after all, and I absorbed it when I left!” Ness’ mom, Tracy, and Ninten all looked at Ness then burst out laughing. What was so funny? Ness felt anger welling up, but eventually Tracy explained. “Maybe it was for a while, but Magicant isn’t yours. It belongs to the mind of the holder, which was you for a while. But it’s not anymore. Now it belongs to the mind of the new holder.” “Which is who, exactly?” “Well that’s the thing. There isn’t one at the moment. So Magicant is being run by the inhabitants of Magicant themselves. Specifically, the Magypsies.” Ness felt even more confused than before, but it certainly got Lucas’ attention. “Magyspsies?” he asked. Tracy nodded. “Yeah, their kinda weird though.” “How many?” Lucas asked. Ness thought that was a weird question to ask, but Lucas seemed serious about it. “Seven. There’s seven of them.” “Even Locria?” Tracy gave Lucas a look, but answered his question. “Yeah, all seven, including Locria, run Magicant.” Lucas was wide-eyed, but Ness still had no clue what anyone was talking about.

 

~~~

 

After Claus bolted through the weird rift in his rage, he came to regret it. Where the heck was he? Things were pink, and buildings were made of seashells, just like the Magypsie houses. He scanned his surroundings, using his mechanical eye, but got a headache due to all the information that bolted at him at once. But not one bit of it was useful. In fact, it was mostly just error messages, which just made his headache even worse as the system searched to resolve each and every one of them, one at a time. That’ll take awhile. He had forgotten how much he hated using his mechanical eye for its intended purpose. Well, looks like he’d have to figure this out the old fashioned way. It’s pink, weird, and reminds him of Locria. Wasn’t very helpful, now was it? He saw a town, and figured that would make a good starting point for his exploration. After all, if he was here, he might as well have fun doing it.

 

~~~

 

“Okay Tracy, if he is in Magicant, which there’s no way he is, how do we get him out of there?” Tracy looked at Ness with a hint of attitude on her face. “You got an Onyx Hook?” “No, but don’t you?” “That’s the one your idiotic friend just took!” “Claus is NOT idiotic!” Lucas shouted, getting angry for the first time since Ness had met him. “Only idiots walk through rifts in space with no clue what’s on the other side!” “Claus is just adventurous, that’s all!” Ness realized just then that the whole point of this was to make his friends looks normal. Then again, this wasn’t a normal situation, so maybe his mom would just forget about it altogether? Ness was gonna hope, anyway.

 

Ness had been to Magicant before, he had to be able to get there again, right? He started humming the sanctuary melodies, but it didn’t do anything but turn all eyes onto him. And get his mom’s attention. “Ness, honey, what are you doing?” Ness was usually pretty good, for a kid his age. But he’s HAD it! “I’M trying to save my friend! Friendship actually MATTERS to me, unlike some other people I know! Haven’t you ever had a FRIEND that you CARED ABOUT before? Guess what? I had 3! And I’m not aloud to see any of them! So MAYBE when I make a NEW friend, I’m going to try not to lose him too!” Everybody was staring at Ness with wide-eyed expressions. So MAYBE he went a little far, but he was tired of being this “normal” person he was expected to be. “Ness, I’m only looking out for your best interests. Maybe Fourside wasn’t a good place afterall, maybe we should move to… Threek? It’s pretty empty there. I could get you into a good school and-” “No! We are NOT moving to Threek! We aren’t moving again, unless it’s back to Onett! Does it really matter, anyway? I’ve been to Threek too! I’ve been everywhere! And guess what! I WILL find a way to get into trouble. It’s been a talent I’ve always possessed! And you know what? It’s a talent I’m PROUD to have! Because if I didn’t… you, and EVERYONE ELSE ON THIS EARTH would be DEAD! Don’t forget that! My ‘abnormal’ friends and my ‘abnormal’ powers SAVED THE WORLD! So yes, I’m going to use my abnormal powers to save my abnormal friend and there is NOTHING you can do to stop me!” That’s when Ninten cut in. “You’re powers, abnormal or not, cannot get you into Magicant that simply.” Ness felt kind of embarrassed now. He kind of just made a claim, in a very dramatic way, that he has no way of keeping. Just perfect.

 

~~~

 

When Claus made it to the town, all eyes were on him. Made since, considering how different he looked from all of the other weird witchy looking people, but he didn’t really care. But he quickly found out that wasn’t why they were staring. He heard some of them murmur “dragon” and “needle” and “magypsie”, and he quickly figured out why. They knew he had pulled some of the needles. How they knew, Claus didn’t know, but it was obvious they knew. So he did the sensible thing in this situation. “Hey, you! Green hat girl! What do you know about me?” ‘Green hat girl’ looked in surprise, but quickly got over it. “Needle Master Claus! You’ve finally made it to Magicant!” “...Don’t ever call me ‘Needle Master’ ever again. That’s… that’s just weird. Anyway, Magicant, huh? Can you tell me why this place reminds me of the Magypsies so much?” An annoyingly shrill yet deep voice came from behind Claus. “We most certainly can Clausy-poo! <3” Claus changed his more mechanical arm into his arm cannon and pointed it at the magypsie behind him. However, he was quickly reminded by some sparks that it had been disabled awhile ago and he still hadn’t gotten it fixed. He looked behind him, and found that the magypsie behind him was Ionia. Didn’t matter to him. He despised all magypsies. “No need for any of that, Clausy-poo! Welcome to Magicant, where I’m sure you’ll enjoy your stay! <3”

 

~~~

 

Pokey had been waiting in a bush for so long! He was SO bored! How can he kidnap his brother if his brother just won’t pass by? Then something dawned on him. Why kidnap HIS brother, when he can kidnap SOMEONE ELSE’S brother? And he knew just the brother to kidnap to get just the perfect reaction. Now THIS will be fun!

 

~~~

 

“There’s more than one way to Magicant.” Everybody turned to Ninten, expecting him to elaborate. But he didn’t. He just watched all of their reactions. Ness decided to push for information. “And what other way can we go?” “You tell me, chosen boy.” Ness sighed. Why did he expect Ninten to actually help him when he needed it? But, Ness had been to Magicant before, and he hadn’t used an Onyx Hook. But how could he just teleport into Magicant? It had never worked before… then again, he hadn’t really ever tried since he absorbed it. He just assumed it was gone. “Okay, everyone, follow my lead!” Ness ran out the door and onto the sidewalk outside. His mom seemed upset, but no one was looking so he used PK Teleport. And, it took them to Magicant. Just that simple. Right? Or… not. Ness looked around. This place was… destroyed. There wasn’t much here. Tracy was wide-eyed, and looked at Lucas. “Wait… you’re…” Lucas looked like he was about to cry. Ness had no clue what was going on. “You have no clue what you’re doing, do you, Dragon Master?” Tracy said to Lucas with a hint of urgency. “Dragon Master?” Lucas looked very confused, and Tracy looked nervous. “Okay, we need to get out of here! Until Lucas knows what he’s doing… Claus’ll come back. He will, and you know that, right Lucas? You know he wouldn’t leave you, right?” Lucas nodded. “Then we need to head back. If you care about your brother’s safety, leaving is the best thing you can do for him right now. Do you understand me?” Lucas started crying, and the whole place started shaking. “Lucas, Lucas please! Ness, get us out of here!” Ness still had no clue what was going on. He expected Magicant to be destroyed the way it is now, but Claus wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and there wasn’t exactly anything to hide behind. So what was going on? He listened to his sister’s instructions, and brought them back. Afterall, no telling what could happen in a place as unstable as Magicant, especially when it’s not his own form of it. When they got back to their apartment, Tracy let out a sigh of relief. How much could she possibly know about Magicant that Ness didn’t? Ninten look unphased, but he shook his head. “The only thing to do now is wait.” With that, Ninten left the room.

 

Tracy was the next to speak. “I hate to say it, but Ninten’s right. Lucas, that place isn’t dangerous unless your looking for trouble, so as long as he doesn’t-” “Claus ALWAYS looks for trouble. How dangerous is it then?” “...There’s no telling. But, there really isn’t much we can do. So go home, okay Lucas? Claus will be back soon.” “...” “You trust him, don’t you?” “Of course I do! It’s just, last time we got separated…” Ness wasn’t sure what had happened, but he guessed that getting separated led to Claus’ chimerization. “But that was then, right? And this is now. If you keep holding onto the past, you’ll never get to experience the present, right? So just experience it! I think that’s what Claus wants to do. Just, try to live like there wasn’t a yesterday, and there won’t be a tomorrow. That’s all you can do.” Wow, Ness forget how great he was at giving inspirational speeches! “...Yeah.” With that, Lucas left. Well, Ness THOUGHT he was good at giving inspirational speeches, anyway. Lucas didn’t seem to happy, though. But what more could he do?

 

~~~

 

Lucas tried to smile. Ness was right! Focusing on the past only brings a worse future, and he’s had first hand experience of what it looks like when someone obsesses with the past. Did that mean Lucas was acting like Porky? Lucas shuddered at the thought. As he left his friend’s apartment, he really didn’t want to go back to his own, to be alone. Dad wasn’t supposed to come back until much later tonight, when everyone was asleep. Why is it that even now, when the Claus is FINALLY back, dad was still never home? Why did his father have to work all day just to keep a small apartment? Even in Tazmily, you got to keep your house, whether you worked or not. Even when everything else costed, you could still just find your own food, or do things your own way. Lucas sighed. He decided to take a walk around Fourside, the cool night air keeping him awake. He finally let everyone escape the city, just to move to the city. By Porky’s demands no less. Even this late at night, bright lights blared, cars whizzed past him, people milled about, there was no PEACE! Lucas considered something Ness had said. He had to move out of his hometown to give everything up and move here. Maybe they weren’t so different, after all. Except, Ness could still go back, if he really wanted to. But Lucas couldn’t time travel like Porky could. He couldn’t just ‘go back home’. Not like that. But Lucas tried to focus on the moment, just like Ness had said. It was a nice night, and Lucas could still see the stars, even if they were dulled by the bright lights. Lucas forced a smile. This didn’t have to be so bad, right? Sure, Tazmily was gone, but so was New Pork. And the Pigmasks couldn’t really hurt him or anyone he cared about so easily anymore. Porky wasn’t in control anymore! “Or was he?” Lucas heard a terrifyingly familiar voice, and turned around quickly to see the source of it. Porky himself. Lucas was about to scream, but Porky clamped a hand down on his mouth. “Come, Lucas. I have plans for you.” Lucas wanted to kick, to scream, to cry, but he lost all feeling in his body, and he slowly fell asleep.

 

~~~

 

Nobody said anything else about what had happened. Ness preferred that, because he also didn’t get scolded for having abnormal friends and being abnormal in front of them. Yes, this was the best outcome for him. But he felt bad for Lucas, he was so scared! Ness knew Claus was going to be perfectly alright, but Lucas? Lucas had been clinging onto Claus like a puppy since they first met. Ness didn’t think Lucas could let that go so easily. But what else could he do? Nothing. There was nothing any of them could do to save Claus, and even if Ness COULD go into Magicant and find Claus, he wasn’t going to. Claus had been dying for a chance to have a new adventure, and Ness wasn’t going to stop him. It was Claus’ life to live, so he should just live it. But Ness couldn’t help but wonder where he could’ve been, and how Magicant was back. And why was Tracy so freaked out, yet knowledgeable? Ness hoped he’d find out soon. He went to the living room to sleep on the couch yet again, but quickly found it was occupied. By Ninten. And when Ness went to his own room, it was empty. He smiled a nostalgic smile and slept among artifacts of his past memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're wondering what the heck Threek is, it's the Japanese name for Threed. I personally think it sounds cooler, because it sounds like freak and shriek, just like I use the Japanese names for the towns in Mother (Mother's day, Thanksgiving, ect.) because I think those names just sound cooler than the American ones.


	10. Who Names Their Child Mana Mana?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like, seriously? Is it that hard to come up with a creative name that isn't just someone's last name?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Tried to make this more like an actual book and less... annoying to read. So, hope you enjoy! Eventually I might go back and fix all of the other chapters and make them more like this.

Lucas woke up, the numbness finally wearing off. He felt… weird though. He couldn’t move, even though he wasn’t numb. When he opened his eyes, he realized why. He was in some sort of science lab, put on an operating table. He tried to scream, but his mouth was gagged. No, he couldn't… he couldn’t be turned into a chimera! He couldn’t! He tried to squirm, but he couldn’t move an inch. He wasn’t going to let this happen to him! Lloyd walked in the room, his expression grim. He wasn’t going to hurt him, was he? Lucas gave Lloyd a begging look, but Lloyd couldn’t even look at him.  _ Lloyd! _ Lucas called out with his mind. Lloyd quickly looked up at Lucas, with a surprised expression.  _ Lloyd please, you can’t do this! _ There was a bit of resistance, so Lucas could tell Lloyd was actively trying to block him out. That wasn’t a good sign. “Lucas, I don’t know what’s going to happen to you. But I’m sorry. I don’t have a choice.” With that and a sympathetic look, Lloyd left the room. No one was going to save him. He was going to suffer the same fate his brother did, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

 

~~~

 

The rest of the weekend was mostly uneventful. Claus didn’t show up, and Lucas hadn’t said anything at all to Ness. Ness decided not to bother Lucas, because he was probably still upset about his brother. Of course, Ness hadn’t seen Claus either, and didn’t expect to, until someone was banging on the door in the middle of the night.

Of course Ness got dressed quickly (he had learned from all the time he’s spent in hotels to do it in about a minute) and grabbed his backpack and bat. He then quickly ran to the door before anyone else could take this moment away from him.

When he answered the door, Claus was there with a worried look. His shirt was pretty torn up, revealing his arms to have all sorts of mechanical workings throughout them. His gloves were missing too, and the whole overall look of him just screamed ‘disrepair’. Before Ness could say anything about this, though, Claus quickly began talking.

“Ness, have you seen Lucas?”

“...No. Claus, where have you been?”

“Doesn’t matter. Dad hasn’t seen him either, for days! Not sense Friday! Gosh, I shouldn’t have left and-”

“Claus! Calm down! You aren’t going to find him by stressing over it. Where have you look?” 

“Everywhere! I’ve been flying around scanning for his life signs since I came back hours ago!” Ness tried to remember everything that happened on Friday, but there was one thing that he kept remembering that he just couldn’t ignore.

“Do you know where Pokey is?” Claus’ worried expression changed to outright terrified.

“Why… why would you…?”

“I don’t know anything for a fact, but it’s worth a check, isn’t it?” Claus looked like he was going to puke

“...Okay. C’mon. I know where he would be.” Claus grabbed Ness by the wrist and used one arm to easily move him up onto his back. He then sped down the stairs and out of the building quickly, and was running down the sidewalk even faster. Ness had never seen anyone run this fast before, and even though he knew of Claus’ strength, he couldn’t help but hold onto his shoulders for dear life. Ness wasn’t exactly sure why Claus had brought him along, but he guessed it had something to do with Pokey’s new obsession over being friends with him.

When they arrived at their destination, Ness looked up to see a building that must’ve been at least 20 stories. All for Pokey? Isn’t that a little much? But Claus didn’t stop to smell the roses. He had put Ness down, but still had a machine-like grip on Ness’ wrist, so tight Ness wondered if any blood was able to get through. Claus then dragged him into the building, and into the elevator quickly. He pushed the 10th floor, the highest number lit-up being 20, even though there were enough buttons for 100 floors, and the elevator moved up swiftly.

The ride up was silent, except for a cheery yet robotic voice that said “Next stop, 100th floor.” Ness wondered about that, but it didn’t really matter much to him. When they got up there, Claus went out quickly into a room with a desk and about a billion blueprints of how to form various chimeras.

Lloyd was sitting at the desk, a surprised yet scared expression on his face. “...Commander, how’s it been?”

Claus got close to Lloyd’s face, picking him up by the collar of his shirt. “Where’s my brother?” 

Lloyd gulped, obviously nervous. “...In there.” Lloyd said, motioning towards a door with his eyes. Claus dropped him, and both Ness and Claus rushed over to the door. Ness could hear Lloyd weeping, likely from fear, behind him.

Claus kicked down the door easily, and there was Lucas, asleep and locked in some sort of prison cell among many others with assorted chimeras inside them. Claus turned one of his arms into an arm cannon, but when he tried to blast it, it had no effect. He glared furiously at his arm cannon, before looking behind him back towards Lloyd.

“Fix this.” Claus said menacingly. Lloyd looked terrified, but he threw a key towards Claus. Claus quickly unlocked the door, and grabbed his brother, who remained asleep. “Ness, I got Lucas from here. You figure out what to do with Scientist over there, then just go back to the first floor. You know how to get back from here.”

With that, Claus ran back to the elevator, leaving Ness with Lloyd. Ness had no idea what to do about Lloyd! “So, umm… hey Lloyd. ‘Sup?” Lloyd looked at him, still wide-eyed. He obviously didn’t expect Ness to not go crazy violent like Claus probably was about to, but Ness knew Lloyd probably had a good reason for being here. “So, you ready to go back home?” Lloyd still stayed silent, staring at him a moment before violently shaking his head. “Why not?” Lloyd looked to the ground, then whispered a name so quietly Ness barely caught it.

“...Ana…”

“Ana?”

“...N-nothing. Please, j-just go home. I’m fine here.” Ness looked around, at all the Chimeras and such in cages. He wondered how long this had been going on. Things that were half chicken and half snake, a mouse with wings, and elephant with a trunk that was a bird, this wasn’t okay.

“Maybe you are, but they aren’t.” Ness said, sounding more grim then he expected. 

“...Please, I can’t leave yet! Not yet!”

“You said something about an Ana right? Is she why you can’t leave?”

“...”

Lloyd’s silence told Ness everything he needed to know. Lloyd was looking up, and Ness followed his gaze to a camera, with a flashing red light. They were obviously being watched. Ness pretended not to notice, and took interest in the blueprints strown about. Then, after a minute or so, “PK Rockin’!” and the camera broke, with a sound that sounded similar to that of a dying pig. Gross.

“So, where is she?” Lloyd looked even more surprised, if that was even possible. 

“...Umm…”

“I know you know. So just spit it out so we can all get out of here.”

“...20th floor… but don’t take the elevator, you’ll never make it. But… that’s where…” Ness understood.

“Okay, get out of here. I’ve got things from here.”

“N-no! Y-you can’t!”

“C’mon Lloyd, you really think I’m gonna let Pokey do whatever he wants around here? Think of it as a little bit of revenge on Pokey. You know where I live, right? Bang on the door long enough and someone’ll let you in. I’ll be back before it’s time for school tomorrow.” Lloyd looked scared, but he didn’t refuse. He grabbed a bag he had obviously already packed just in case he could ever escape, and opened a door to a stair well. He ran down a couple stairs, tripped, and fell down the rest. Ness felt like he probably should have warned him, but nows not the time for references that half the people reading this probably won’t get.

Ness ran up the stairs, heeding his own warning and NOT tripping, until he made it to the 20th. When he came up there, a plush pink, purple, and blue room was before him, looking much more like a little girl’s room than anything. Of course, it was probably just Pokey’s. Toys and presents were everywhere, and Ness found himself wondering how many of them Pokey bought and wrapped for himself. Did all of the presents even have anything in them? Ness wasn’t really sure, but he figured he should probably focus on saving Ana, whoever that was.

He didn’t see anyone right of the bat, and did a bit of exploring. Man, Pokey was SPOILED! There were toys EVERYWHERE, but it looked like he just threw them against the wall and broke them. But some, Ness guessed his favorite, were so over used so violently that Ness figured they just needed to be replaced. But while he found himself questioning the blatant symbolism in this room, Pokey himself came out of a door.

“Best friend Ness! You came to one of my play rooms!” Pokey threw himself at Ness, who stepped out of the way just slightly, making Pokey fall into a pile of his toys. Man, this guy was so much more manageable when he just hated Ness’ guts.

“Pokey, where is Ana?” Pokey stood up, with an innocent deer-in-headlights look.

“What are you talking about?”

“Pokey, release Ana, and…” Ness sighed, regretting what he said as he said it. “I’ll play a game with you, like we used to. For a full hour. Just let her go, and I’ll stay here and play with you.”

Pokey got an excited look. Oh god, what did Ness start? “Deal! We’re gonna have so much fun, bestest friend!” Ness wanted to puke. Why was Pokey so obsessed with him? It’s not like he liked ANYONE else. Anyone else, and he’d probably laugh in their face and throw ‘em out the window or something. But he agreed to Ness’ terms.

Pokey was surprisingly kiddish. It was like he was a violent five-year old. They were playing some stupid game with some pig toys, for what felt like years. But after a timer Ness had started went off, an hour was up, and Ness was done. “C’mon best friend, just a little while longer!”

“No Pokey, you made a deal, now keep it.”

“No! I want you to stay here with me, forever, playing here with me, forever and ever! I can even try to make you immortal just like me, so we can play together for eternity!”

What was with this kid? He couldn’t ACTUALLY be immortal. It was probably some twisted game he was playing. But enough is enough. “Pokey, let Ana go and let us both leave, or… I’ll hate you forever! And I’ll never play with you again! Do you want that?”

Pokey looked like he had just been shot in the heart. Was it seriously going to work this easily? “But… I just want to play with you, bestest friend! I’ll get bored without you!”

“If you don’t let us both go now, I’ll…” How could he deal with this? He looked at the large window behind Pokey, and ran to it. He was being crazy, and he wouldn’t actually do it, but Pokey didn’t have to know that. Ness opened the window. “I’ll jump! I’ll jump from here and die and it’ll be your fault!”

“...Well, I’ll just put you back together again and again!” Oh crap, Pokey wasn’t gonna relent.

So Ness tried another approach, but stepped away from the window first because he was actually starting to get kind of nervous. He forced himself to instead burst into tears. How else to convince someone who acted like a little kid to do something then to act like a little kid. “Pokey! You broke your promise, and you made me sad!” Ness was actually having a little fun with this one. Not because it was fun to cry, but because Pokey’s reaction was priceless.

He ran over there, and patted Ness on the back making a “shh…” noise, like a mother would a child. “...I’m sorry best friend Ness. I’ll let you and the girl go home. But you have to promise to come back and play with me soon!” Ness wanted to laugh, but he held it in for the sake of looking realistic.

“...Really?”

Pokey nodded, and opened a drawer which held a key. He handed it to him. “Here you go, Ness.” Pokey pointed to a door. “She’s in there. Go ahead and get her, and you can both go home, okay?” Ness nodded, trying desperately to keep the charade up. He unlocked the door, to find a girl that looked just like Paula glaring at him.

“So, what is it this time? What do you want?” The girl, Ana, finally looked at Ness. “What are you doing here?”

“There’s not really time for that right now.” Ness lowered his voice. “Let’s go before Pokey changes his mind.” Ana looked suspicious of him, but didn’t argue. Ness grabbed her arm and quickly brought her to the elevator, feeling a bit protective. He couldn’t help it! He finally did something! For real! Ness started laughing on the way down, like a crazed lunatic. He did something, for real! He almost jumped off a building! He helped save multiple people! He… he… he got slapped in the face by Ana.

“If you’re going to lose your mind, at least wait until you’ve actually done something worth losing your mind about first. We’re still in this mess until we’re out of it, you know that, right?” Ness realized he was still in the elevator, and still hasn’t ‘saved’ Ana yet. They were still in the building. Ness stopped laughing like a crazy person, and fixed his form a little. He did have to keep up a good impression for this girl, after all.

Once they finally got to the first floor, Ness grabbed her arm again, but she quickly pulled away. “I can walk on my own.” Ness sighed. Apparently this girl didn’t liked being a damsel in distress or whatever. Yet another similarity between her and Paula. Ness missed Paula. He missed her weird bipolar rage, and her sweet scent, and her love for teddy bears, and… Ness stopped. Now is NOT the time for this.

“Ana, do you have anywhere you can go?” Ana gave Ness a puzzled look, as if looking at him long enough would tell her everything there was to know about him.

“...No. I don’t.”

“Then do you want to come home with me? Not in a creepy way but…”

“Yes. I do. Thanks Ninten.”

“...You know, you aren’t the first person to confuse me with him, but I’m Ness. Ness Montague. I think we might be related, but I’m not exactly sure how.”

Ana gave a somewhat surprised and somewhat disgusted look. “Just where IS Ninten then?” Ana shouted angrily.

“He’s at my place! Geez!” Ana calmed down a little, but Ness wasn’t quite off the hook yet.

“Well then take me to him!”

“Geez, fine, but calm down. I’ll take you to him, but it’s a bit walk. You up for that?”

“You’re a Montague and don’t know PSI?” Ana asked, with honest curiosity in her voice.

“...What do you know about PSI?”

“I’d show you if that stupid pig didn’t mess with mine, but I’m psychic, and so is Ninten.”

“Then…” Ness though about it for a moment. If she already knew, there was no harm in hiding it, was there? “Okay, you got me, I’m psychic. Don’t know how you could have known that, but yes, I am. Let’s just… okay, just follow me.” Ness started running, and Ana followed. “PK Teleport!” The two ended up on the sidewalk in front of the apartment. Nostalgia flashed through Ness like lightning, remembering how many times he and his friends had come here on their adventure. Paula had loved the big city, and always insisted they go here when they needed to rest and restock on food. Jeff had loved the amount of people, since Winters was always so lonely, and Poo… well, Poo didn’t really care one way or another. But Ana wasn’t Paula, and Ness wasn’t on an adventure. He was just a normal kid, and so was she.

Apparently he had spent too long daydreaming, because Ana clapped in front of his face. “Are we going, or not?” Ness nodded, and they headed inside.

They went inside, and the first thing Ness saw was Lloyd pacing back and forth, and Ninten sitting on the couch reading from some journal. Ana apparently saw them, too. “Ninten, Lloyd, you’re here! You’re the real Ninten, right?” Ninten gave Ana a look like she was crazy, and Ness assumed that answered her question. These three obviously knew each other. Ness thought that was great, but he had more important matters to attend to right now. Ana seemed fine, Lloyd seemed fine, and Ness couldn’t think of any reason why Ninten wouldn’t be fine, so he left those three to it and went next door to his neighbor’s apartment.

The door was slightly ajar, likely left that way in the rush to get Lucas inside, so Ness just let himself in. The first thing Ness noticed was Claus pacing back and forth in front of the door to Lucas’ room.

“Claus! How’s Lucas doing?”

“...He has a pulse, a strong one, but he hasn’t woken up. I haven’t checked if Porky made him a chimera or anything I just…” Claus’ voice trailed off, and Ness thought he might almost be crying.

Claus turned away.“Lucas is strong and nothing would ever happen to him, right?”

“You blame yourself, don’t you?” Claus turned back to face Ness. Ness finally got a good look at him. Wires and metal were sticking out of his arms, and he looked extremely tired, like he hadn’t slept in days. Claus didn’t say a word, but Ness knew the answer. Of course he did, because he wasn’t there when it happened. “But it’s not your fault. Pokey does what he wants, and you not being in Magicant wouldn’t have changed that. And we still don’t know what happened. Lucas could be fine.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Claus’ sentence had zero emotion. Ness didn’t say anything. He wanted to be able to say yes, nothing could ever happen to Lucas. But… he couldn’t lie to him. Ness had seen so many crazy things in that building alone, not to mention other things Pokey had done, so… he couldn’t say that Lucas will be fine no matter what. Because in truth, Ness had no clue if he was or not. Ness finally came up with an answer, an honest one, even if the truth hurt. “We won’t know until he wakes up.” Claus nodded and looked to the ground. Neither of them said anything for awhile.

Flint showed up not much later. Ness assumed he was out looking for Lucas, and had just gotten back. Apparently no one had told him Claus had shown up, because he looked surprised to see him. Claus walked over, still watching the ground, and hugged his father.

Flint was the one to break the silence. “Claus, what happened to you?”

Claus shrugged. “Nothing that matters right now. Dad, I… I found Lucas. He’s in his room… Porky had him.”

Flint, who didn’t seem to show emotion often, straightened his cowboy hat. He then opened the door to Lucas’ room, to see him still asleep. Before Flint could get worried, Claus clarified what he knew. “He’s still breathing, and his heart’s still beating. He’s alive. Just, resting for a bit. He must be exhausted... Ness, you should probably go home now. If I know Lucas, I know he’ll stay asleep for a long time.” Claus forced a smile. “He’s always been a bit of a late riser. I’ll see you soon, okay?” Ness nodded, and left their apartment to go back to his own. He figured they needed their space to sort that mess out. Even if Ness wanted to be there for his friends, he knew it wasn’t really his place.

When he walked his apartment, everyone was asleep. Ninten on the couch clutching onto that journal, Ana on a different couch, and Lloyd just… sprawled out on the floor. Even though he could’ve at least slept in a chair… Ness wasn’t going to wake him up to tell him that though, and he went to his own room. He checked the time- 5:34. Was there even any point of trying to sleep at this point? He had to wake up for school at 7:00. He decided it wasn’t. Ness turned off his main light, to avoid suspicion from his mom, and took out a flashlight. He opened a drawer, and took out a photo album, and let himself once again get lost in his memories of the past.

Ness must’ve fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing he knew Tracy was shaking him awake. “Tracy… wh-wh” “Morning Ness! Oooo, what’s that?” Tracy tried to grab Ness’ photo album, but Ness got a tighter grip on it just in time.

“Nothing, Tracy, get out of my room!” Ness was so tired, but he was awake enough to realize when there’s a threat to his most important souvenirs of his adventures, this one being one of the most important. Tracy kept trying to grab it, but Ness knew how to turn the tides of battle. “Hey Tracy, why’s there an Onyx Hook under your floorboards?” Tracy glared at Ness, stuck out her tounge, then left the room. Conversation over, apparently.

When Ness came out into the dining room, he had noticed Lloyd and Ana were still here. Ness wasn’t going to question it, but what he did find a bit odd is that there were still enough chairs, and the table was set for all of them, and his mom had made enough food for everyone. Odd.

Ness’ mom noticed Ness was up, and Ness could tell she knew. “So, Ness, get a good amount of sleep last night?”

“Umm, well, I had a hard time sleeping because of… nightmares. So many nightmares. So no, I guess not.”

Ness’ mom shook her head. It was very obvious she knew, but she didn’t say a word.  _ Maybe because she’s proud of me. _ Ness thought.  _ Or maybe just because she knows there’s nothing she can do about it. _

It felt so surreal to be going to school again after everything that had happened last night. Although it was only one night, it felt like a year. Saving Lucas, saving Lloyd, saving Ana, it was exactly what Ness whished he could do all the time. Save people. But here he was, like any other day, walking to school. The only difference was Ana and Lloyd being there, and Lucas and Claus NOT being there, which made Ness’ stomach sink.

Ana and Lloyd were holding a decent conversation, Ninten pitching in every now and again, and Tracy had left early so she wouldn’t have to walk to school with Ness. Apparently walking with one of the four people who saved the entire planet was too embarrassing for her.

When they got to school, Ness was left alone quickly. With no one else to keep him company, Ness looked kind of lame, honestly. He sat at the same bench he sat at on the first day of school and hoped for another miracle.

That would be a que for someone to walk up to him and talk, right?

Right?

Any minute now?

“Hi!”

Ness bolted up, and looked at the source of the voice. A blonde girl with a dress that looked like it was made of gold walk up to him. “Hi, I’m Mana, Mana Mana. It’s so nice to meet you!” Ness was pretty sure every eye was on her. Ness wasn’t sure just what it was, but just the sight of her demanded attention. She was the prettiest girl Ness had ever met, he’d admit that. But he wasn’t going to fall for her. His heart belonged to Paula. Even if it was long distance at the moment.

“Sooooo, do you have a name?” Ness bolted back to the moment, and remembered he was in a conversation. If he wanted any chance of making a friend what-so-ever, he figured he should probably at least try to make a good first impression.

“I’m Ness. It’s nice to meet you Mana.”

“Oh, so you DO have a name! I was starting to get worried with you just staring in the distance like a zombie!” She was overly animated, using rapid hand motions as she spoke. This girl was so perky, it’s like she drank like 50 cups of coffee this morning. It didn’t help that Ness got like, no sleep last night. But, Ness didn’t feel tired around her. He felt just as energetic as he normally did, maybe even more so. He didn’t understand it, but he wasn’t going to argue.

The bell rang, and everyone went inside. But, she went to the same classroom he did. Talk about convenient! She sat next to Ginten, which seemed like a bad idea, but Ness wasn’t going to judge.

“Blah, blah, blah, new student, blah, blah, blah.” Seemed Mr. Fassad was as perky as ever! He didn’t even mention the fact that Lloyd was there, and Claus was not. Ness noticed Ana wasn’t in the classroom, so he assumed she got sent into a different class.

Mr. Fassad decided to be a teacher, finally. “Okay, so some of you were gone for the play, but I’m not going to catch you up on what you missed. You’ll figure it out.”

But just as he was saying that, all the lights went out, and a spotlight started shining on the door. A voice was heard from the other side. “And the teacher of the year award goes to…” The door burst open, Claus on the other side. “Mr. Fassad! For his excellent people skills and his love of kids!” Confetti burst down onto Mr. Fassad, and Claus handed him a trophy and shook his hand. “So, how’s it feel being teacher of the year?”

Mr. Fassad looked furious. No, even angrier than that. It’s impossible to put into words just how ANGRY he looked. “Commander, that is ENOUGH out of you! Get out of my classroom! Just go!”

Claus, who looked… perfectly fine today?, walked up and slapped him. “You don’t tell me what I can and can’t do Locria. This is my class. I am a student here, just like everyone else. You don’t get to kick me out because you’re sour that I have a higher rank in the military then you do. Do you understand?”

Terror flashed across Mr. Fassad’s eyes. Ness had known Claus for so long, and yet he had no clue what Claus could possibly be talking about. Ness felt like he didn’t know anything about him, really. Claus walked right past Mr. Fassad, and sat in his seat next to Ness. “Man, I spent so long planning that. I was hoping to get at least some reaction.”

Ness just looked at Claus. “Didn’t you… weren’t you…?”

“It’d help if you could speak English.”

“Well, what happened?!”

Claus laughed, a look of mischief filled his face. “I guess you’ll have to wait and see.” Ness face-palmed. Claus just, wasn’t going to tell him? What about Lucas? What about Claus’ injuries? Just what happened in Magicant? The thoughts raced around quickly in Ness’ head. But, Claus didn’t say a word more. Class went on as normal, as if nothing had happened, just like Mr. Fassad said it would.

When it seemed like every minute lasted a year, the lunch bell finally rang. “Hey.” Claus said. “You want to find out what happened? Follow me.”

Ness, without question, followed Claus. He had to know what happened! They ended up in the courtyard, where Lucas was waiting. Apparently he was back at school, too.

“Hey Lucas, how’s it going?” Ness asked, trying to be polite and genuinely curious.

“...Hey Ness… Claus, you doing okay?”

“Obviously.” Claus rolled his eyes. “I’ve been through worse. The question is, are YOU okay?”

Lucas looked to the ground. “Maybe? I don’t know. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel right now.”

“SO WHAT HAPPENED?” Ness burst out, more forcefully then he meant to. Lucas flinched, and Claus laughed.

“Fine, fine, fair is fair. Lucas, go ahead and show him.”

“I’m not so sure…”

“C’mon Lucas, if you can’t show them to him, you’ll never get over it. Look, I know it’s hard but… there’s not really much you can do…”

Lucas sighed. “But are you sure I should use them?”

“You got ‘em, don’t you? Aren’t they yours? Look, I know it sucks, but trying to reverse it would be… bad. They’re a part of you now. So just let them be a part of you.”

Lucas took off a jacket he was wearing. And from behind him came… dragon wings? He just kind of left them hanging half open, as if he wasn’t really sure what to do with them. They were a light grey with dark grey vein-like supports, the complete opposite of Claus’. Lucas pulled them back in and quickly put his jacket back on.

“Those are… pretty cool, actually.” Ness admitted. Maybe they weren’t natural, but having dragon wings? Ness would have them out all the time, flaunting them like there was no tomorrow.

“Y-you think so?” Lucas said. He had been crying a little, silently, but it showed.

“Yeah I think so! How do they work?”

“I-I’m not completely sure…”

“Well that’s okay, you’ll figure them out.”

Claus sighed. “I should’ve been there… to protect you. But I wasn’t. I’m sorry Lucas. I’m so sorry. I-” Claus turned away, and Ness thought he might be crying again. “I won’t let him hurt you anymore. I promise.”

Lucas hugged his brother. “It’s okay Claus. It’s my fault for not escaping.”

“No! It’s not your fault. You wanna know who’s fault this is? Porky’s. And I’m not going to let it happen anymore!” Claus pulled away from his twin’s grasp, and ran back into the school, quickly.

Lucas watched with apprehension. “We need to stop him!” he said, and he ran in. Ness followed.

The best place to look for a pig at lunchtime was the lunchroom, and Ness figured Pokey was not an exception to this rule. And he wasn’t. The whole school was crowded around a lunch table. Ness quickly pushed through, dragging Lucas, who was too nice to push people himself, with him. And, surprise, surprise, Claus was sitting on the table beating up Pokey.

Ness wasn’t sure what to do on the matter. Ness wasn’t really sure he wanted to do ANYTHING on the matter. Lucas looked like he was having the same dilemma. Every kid in the cafeteria was watching, most of which screaming “Fight! Fight! Fight!” or just cheering on Claus. It didn’t seem like anybody wanted Pokey to win, however. This was kind of a long time coming.

Claus was definitely stronger than most, and he had been hitting Pokey pretty hard for a couple minutes now. Ness wasn’t really sure how alright Pokey was going to be. But that’s when Pokey turned the tables.

He grabbed Claus’ arm and ripped the sleeve off. Underneath was a tightly wrapped bandage that Pokey also ripped off. Ness wanted to puke at how bad Claus’ arm looked. A mess of veins and wires and all sorts of other stuff, just exposed like that. Pokey grabbed at something, anything, and started pulling on it. Claus recoiled in pain, but Pokey kept going. He pulled wires, veins, all sorts just out, making Claus start sparking up, a circuit obviously broken. Pokey pulled off metal, skin, and showed no signs of stopping. Ness guessed the intent was to wreck his arm so bad he could never use it again. Lucas was frozen in fear and no one else wanted to get involved. So Ness did the only thing he could think of.

“PK Rockin’ Omega!” Lights and colors flew, all centered around Pokey. Ness was careful not to get Claus in the shot. Pokey went flying back, until he hit a wall. Ness wanted to see his reaction, but didn’t wait. He ran over to Claus, who had passed out from either pain, blood loss, or relief, and tried to lift him up. Gosh, he was heavy! But Lloyd, who was watching, and Lucas, who was right there, both jumped up on the table to help him. Together, they lifted Claus and started going as quickly as they could. Where? Ness had no idea. So long as it was away from here.

Ness wasn’t sure who decided, but they ended up at Claus and Lucas’ apartment, which was probably the best place to be. They quickly laid Claus down on his bed. Lloyd turned to Ness and Lucas. “I’ve got it from here, but…”

Lucas looked terrified, and ever more so at the but. “But what?”

“But I’d prefer if you weren’t here.”

“You what?”

“I won’t be able to focus with other people being here, and I’ll just mess up under the pressure! Just, please, let me do this. Go somewhere else, okay? It’ll make me not so stressed. I’ll… I’ll call you when I’m done. No matter what time it is, please don’t come home until I’m done, okay?”

Lucas started crying. Not a rare occurrence, but it did seem to stress Lloyd out even more than he was.

“Lucas?” Ness said, as gently as he could. “Maybe we should listen to him. C’mon, why don’t you stay with me for the rest of the day? It’ll keep your mind off everything, and… we can get some icecream! I’ll be fun. We should let Lloyd do his thing, okay? You want Lloyd to be able to focus, right? Claus’ll be just fine. You’ll see. Lloyd can fix anything! He’ll be okay, I promise.”

Lloyd was about to object, but Ness wasn’t going to deal with that right now.  _ Lloyd, don’t make this any worse than it needs to be. _ Lloyd gave Ness a shocked expression, but didn’t say anything.

Lucas tried to dry up his tears. “Promise?”

Ness nodded. “Promise.”

And the two of them left the apartment, leaving Lloyd to work on helping Claus.

 

~~~

 

“Heheheheheh! But he was so cute! I just wanted to sit there and hug him for hours!”

Ginten rolled his eyes. “You’re not supposed to fall in love with him! You’re SUPPOSED to harness his powers! You remember that, don’t you?”

“Oh Giygas, you’re so silly! You know I only have eyes for you! I’d never love someone else as much as I love you!”

Ginten threw her against the walls psychically. Gosh, she’s annoying! But… she was useful. “So are you going to actually do what you’re supposed to do?”

“Nope!”

“I hate talking to you.”

“I know!”


	11. Halloween Brings Bloodshed!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 0_0

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bloodshed comes BEFORE Halloween, just to be clear.

Lucas sat, just picking at his icecream. Ness wanted to see him happy, but he knew Lucas would only smile again when he saw his brother, up and moving, perfectly fine.

Eventually Lucas stood up. “I-I can’t do this! Can we go check on my brother? Just to make sure he’s okay?”

Ness felt really bad, but he couldn’t let him distract Lloyd. If Lloyd messed up… well, who knows what would happen then? “Lucas, I’m sorry. We need to stay out of his way. Lloyd will call us when Claus is better, okay? Claus will be okay, he always is, right?”

“Of course! He’s been through so much, and he’s only ever died once! I just… I want to be there for him this time…”

“Yes… wait, once?”

“Umm… I mean…!”

Ness looked at how worried Lucas looked. Now wasn’t the time to start questioning him on his past. “...Nevermind. We can talk about that later. Why don’t we go somewhere fun, okay? Somewhere to take your mind off things?”

“...Like where?”

Ness thought for a moment. Where’s the most relaxing place he’s been? Summers! Of course! “How’s the beach sound?”

Lucas smiled, just a little. “That sounds like a lot of fun!”

“Okay, I need you to run after me, but close your eyes, okay? It’d be much better if you closed your eyes.”

Got it!

 

~~~

 

“Please try to speak to me while I do this?”

“Why?” Claus said, at least he thinks he did. The room’s spinning and it’s kinda hard to keep track of what’s going on, be he’s trying.

“I want to make sure your still conscious.”

“Why?”

Lloyd sighed. He never got it, did he? “You’ve lost a lot of blood, and your body has a hard time making blood. If you fall asleep I’m… I’m not so sure you’ll wake up.”

Claus tried to roll his eyes. If he did, great. If not, he wasn’t really going to stress over it right now. He’s him! Claus! Commander! He… man everything looks weird. Everything’s getting darker, actually. Yeah. Darker. He shut his eyes. Now that’s much better. He heard Scientist’s voice, but it was from like, a million miles away! Ahahahahah! If he wants to talk to him he should come closer! He can’t hear him! This was hilarious! Who would try to talk to someone their not close to? Claus couldn’t feel himself breathing. Did he breathe on a normal basis? What kind of chimera would need to breathe? Not this one! He… he… he… he stopped thinking anything at all. He was peaceful, maybe more peaceful then he had been in 3 years.

Lloyd kept trying to talk to Claus. To wake him up. To tell him things were going to be okay. But it was all in vain. Claus couldn’t hear him anymore.

 

~~~

 

Ness and Lucas had spent like an hour or two at the beach, and Lucas had seemed to forget everything that was happening. But when Ness got a phone call, Lucas rushed over there. Ness put the phone on speaker, and they both listened in.

Lloyd was on the other end, unsurprisingly. “Guys… I need you to come here. Like, now.”

Lucas started freaking out, but Ness tried to stay calm. “Lloyd, what’s going on? Is Claus alright?

Lloyd didn’t say anything for a moment, and then repeated himself. “I need you to come here. Now.”

“...Okay, umm… we’re on our way.” Ness grabbed Lucas’ hand and used PK Teleport without even thinking about it. In Ness’ experience though, most people in Summers are too carefree to care about PSI, and Lucas wasn’t in the mood to care.

They quickly ran up the stairs and made it into Lucas’ apartment, and went to Claus’ room. Lloyd was in the corner, his face in his hands, and Claus was entirely still, but looked peaceful. Like he was…

Lucas ran over to him, and hugged him tight. So tight it was like he’d never let go. Tears were streaming from his eyes, and he held Claus close. But Ness didn’t need to be close to him to tell what happened. Claus had died. He was dead, and… there was nothing that could be done about it. This realization came crashing down on Ness like an anvil in a cartoon. Claus, one of the strongest and most fearless people Ness had ever met, was dead. For real. He… didn’t know what to do about this…

Ness started gathering his psychic strength, in hopes to revive him through PSI, but Lloyd was one step ahead of him. “It won’t work like that. He’s not human enough for it to. Believe me, I’ve looked into it for fear of him one day dying, but Locria said PSI won’t wake him up, and I’ve learned that science won’t either.” The was a grim sense of finality in Lloyd’s voice. Ness tried anyway. And tried. And tried again. He kept trying until he was so exhausted he couldn’t try anymore. It didn’t work. Ness’ PSI was useless. What’s the point of PSI if it can’t save the people he cares about?

Intense anger welled up inside of him. When he sees Pokey next he was gonna… well, what would he do? It’s not like there was much he could do to get back at Pokey, not without killing someone else. And Ness wasn’t going to do that. He was going to have to find some other way to get back at him.

Lucas was still crying away, and Ness couldn’t blame him. He tried to place a comforting hand on Lucas’ shoulder, but he shook it away. Ness wasn’t sure how to handle Lucas, or how he should feel himself. In the past, if someone died, they could just be brought back to life. But this time… it was impossible. Ness fell to the floor, and started crying himself. He wasn’t much of a cryer, and he’s seen a lot of things, but… Claus was one of his only friends that he could see now, and he had been there with him since he first went to Fourside Academy. Days that were going to be boring and filled with grief were filled with a new sense of life, something that seemed new to Claus. And now, now he’s dead. And Ness was helpless.

Ness got up. Lucas needed space, and Ness needed to be away from all of this. He left the apartment and went to his own, without saying a word. He didn’t say a word to anyone, and flopped down on his bed. It was like 4pm, but he fell asleep. He couldn’t… he couldn’t… he couldn’t deal with other people right now.

 

~~~

 

Mana Mana swung her legs and spun around multiple times in her swivel chair. Ginten was nice enough to offer it to her, and by that she means she took it the second he got up, and hasn’t let him sit in it since.

But suddenly she felt an odd feeling wash over her. “Giygas?”

Ginten floated in there, not even trying to hide that his feet weren’t touching the ground. “What do you want?”

Mana frowned, a rare sight to see, and said “The Dark Needle Master is dead.”, with a grim tone that is only heard on the rare times she’s serious. This caught Ginten off guard.

“He WHAT?! He’s not allowed to die!”

But of course, Mana got her humor back quickly, as she often did. “Hehehehehe I don’t think he had a choice in the matter.”

Ginten rolled his eyes as Mana continued to giggle away like a lunatic. He messaged his other, less insane source of information. Even if he did have to contact him through some stupid Earth phone.

 

Ginten- I need to know something.

Teddy- what

Ginten- Is the Dark Needle Master really dead?

Teddy- thats a long name to be a title

Ginten- Answer the question.

Teddy- idk who that is

Ginten- Idk?

Teddy- nvm who am i looking 4

Ginten- Nvm? I do not understand this strange human language!

Teddy- lol ur bad at this

Ginten- Excuse me?

Teddy- its txt slang

Teddy- i learned it from the future ppl

Teddy- its alot easier then typing the full thing

Ginten- What?

Teddy- Okay, fine.

Teddy- Please, oh “great Master Ginten”, tell me who I’m looking for.

Ginten- Better. His name is Claus Tazmily. He has a twin, but Claus has orange hair. He also has a red eye, and overall a mechanical look.

Teddy- and u want me to c if hes dead

Ginten- I’m going to say yes. If u means you and c means see.

Teddy- now ur getting it

 

Ginten looked angrily at his human phone he had stolen from the future. Did Teddy learn all of that “txt slang” from Porky? It’s so dumb! Why can’t he just write out his words like a normal person?

Mana started giggling. “Because, silly, it takes longer! And, Teddy’s a cool kid, so of course he’s going to use futuristic text slang! If your going to be on the planet, at least learn the customs!”

Ginten decided to ignore Mana’s invasion of his mind, and instead prove he’s better than Teddy at everything, even his “txt slang”.

 

Ginten- dit

Teddy- what

Ginten- what? cant read txt slang?

Teddy- there rly is no helping u is there

Ginten- if u were cooler, u WOOD no dit means “do it then”

Teddy- plz send hlp

Ginten- y

Teddy- k im on it

Teddy- plz stop torturing me

 

Teddy turned off his phone. There didn’t need to be any more of that. Claus, huh? He’s heard that name a couple times before.

He opened his closet and took out a disguise. He decided he’d sell insurance or something. Life insurance. To someone who's probably dead.

He knocked on the door he knew was their apartment- Ginten had pretty much everywhere mapped out by now, including the location of every psychic or person of interest, and Teddy was pretty sure the twins were both psychic AND of interest.

A boy with yellow hair and a red and yellow sweater opened the door. Teddy guessed he was the twin. His eyes were puffy, and there were streaks of water running down his face. He’s obviously been crying. But that wasn’t enough for Ginten. Nope. He needed outright proof.

“Hello there sir, I am… Steve Smith, but please call me Steve. Has there been a recent death in your family?”

The kid started crying all over again, and shut the door in Teddy’s face. He’ll take that as a yes. He sighed and turned back on his phone.

 

Teddy- yo Ginten

Ginten- yo yo yo bro

Teddy- plz stop

Ginten- wht? you not icy cool enough to understand  my cool-kid lingo?

Teddy- just stop

Teddy- u suck at this

 

Ginten was in the middle of texting, but Mana took the phone from his hands.

 

Ginten- Hey, it’s Mana. Mana Mana!

Ginten- Don’t mind Giygas, he just wants to be better than everyone at everything.

Ginten- Even if he’s not.

Ginten- He just spent like the last 30 minutes on the Porknet researching how to sound cool.

Ginten- So is Clausy alive?

Teddy- idk

Teddy- but i dont think so

Ginten- Oh come on!

Teddy- so where we at now

Ginten- ...

Teddy- o yeah u suck at this 2

Teddy- what are we going to do now?

Ginten- Oh!

Ginten- You aren’t doing anything.

Ginten- Just go back to doing whatever it is you were doing before.

Ginten- I won’t handle the rest. ;D

Teddy- k

Teddy- plz dont give ginten the phone back

Ginten- No.

Teddy- i dont feel like decoding that so bye

Ginten- Hello!

 

Mana closed out of the conversation, then started searching through the rest of Ginten’s apps. Man, this guy was boring! He didn’t have anything fun on here! She was about to download some things, but Ginten stole his phone back.

“Mana, is the Dark Needle Master alive or not?” he said, glaring at her. He could read her mind, and she knew it.

“Yep.” she said grimly, then started thinking so many random things at once Ginten recoiled in pain. She was used to him doing this, but he was way too logical to get her nonsense.

He severed the connection between their minds, and continued business as normal. “Deal with it.”

“No can do!” Mana said with a smile, and disappeared into the air. Ginten rolled his eyes and went back to work.

 

~~~

 

It had been about a month since Claus’ death. Lucas had transferred into Ness’ class, mainly for moral support, but he hasn’t talked much since then. But nothing else seemed to change. Fassad was being just as horrible as ever, Pokey was still clingy to Ness (even though Ness wouldn’t even look him in the eye anymore), and nothing really HAPPENED. It seemed all of the adventures Ness has had post adventure was because of Claus. So now there was nothing.

It was almost Halloween, but Ness really didn’t feel like celebrating. Pumpkins were everywhere, stores were covered in fake spider webs, and everyone was talking about their Halloween costumes. Ness didn’t think he was going to even leave the house on Halloween. What’s the point? He couldn’t really enjoy himself, anyway. Or so he thought, until he got a call.

Ness didn’t really feel like answering, but if it was his dad telling him to take a break, he’d be pretty angry if Ness didn’t answer.

“...Hello?”

But, surprisingly, on the other line was Paula. “Ness! I’m so glad I got ahold of you! Why haven’t you called me? Do you not like me anymore?

“...No! Of course I still like you. Paula? ...Why are you calling me?”

“What, you didn’t want a call from me? Do you have a problem with me?” Ness could hear all sorts of things breaking in the background.

“Not what I meant at all! Just, it’s a surprise, that’s all! So, what’s up Paula?”

“Well… you know that party that’s going down in Toppalla Theatre on Halloween?” Ness had heard rumors, but he never really cared. He didn’t plan on going.

“...Yeah. What about it?”

“Well, I’m going! And I want you to come too!”

Ness thought about it for a moment. He REALLY didn’t feel like going to a party, but seeing Paula again? Maybe that’s just the thing he needed to get out of this slump.

“...Sure. What are you going as?”

“A princess!”

“Heh. Sounds perfect. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“See you then!”

Ness hung up. A party? Was he really ready for this? He knocked on Tracy’s door. “Hey Tracy, you going to that party at Topolla?”

Tracy opened the door, but only enough so she could stick her head out. “Yeah, obviously. It’s not like you can trick-or-treat in a city. Why?”

“Do you have a flier for it?”

Tracy closed her door then came back with a flier. “It’s not like you’d want to go to something like that though.”

“Maybe, but I think it’d be a good idea. Thanks Tracy.”

Tracy rolled her eyes and closed her door. Man, that girl was becoming an angsty preteen. You’d think she was the older sister with how teen-ish she acts. Ness decided to ignore that, though. He had a bigger concern. He needed a costume! Halloween was in one week, and he didn’t have a costume yet!

Ness ran out of the apartment, and started heading towards the department store, when he ran straight into Lucas. “Sorry Lucas, I didn’t see you there!”

“...No, it’s fine… where are you going so quickly?” Lucas was talking mostly to the ground.

“...Oh… hey Lucas.” Ness started to feel kind of guilty for wanting to go to a party when all Lucas could think about was his dead brother. But, it was to see Paula…! Ness decided not to lie to him. “...I’m getting a Halloween costume… for the party at the Topalla?

Lucas didn’t say anything for a moment, but then finally came to a conclusion, it seemed. “...I want to come too then.” Ness was surprised, but Lucas seemed very sure of his answer. “Claus would have wanted to go, and… well, he also would’ve wanted me to try to have fun! And… if I’m terrified, I might not feel so sad, at least. Mind if I join you in looking for a costume? I’ve never actually celebrated Halloween before…”

Ness was shocked. Lucas wanted to go to a scary party? After everything that happened, Lucas wanted to go to a scary party. “Of course! Of course I’ll help you! What kind of costume are you looking for?”

“...Something with a mask...”

 

~~~

 

Mana giggled as she started setting up for the Halloween party. It had to be good, since it was her party. She had asked Ginten to help, but he was being his normal boring self. So Teddy was helping. He’d have to do, Mana supposed. Gosh, why do none of the boys she like give her the time of day? Ginten was always working, and Clausy just outright died. Why do boys have to be so annoying?

~~~

 

Ness got into his Starman costume. He wasn’t so sure at first, but he figured it’d be fun. He had to make it himself, because the costume wouldn’t be in stores, but enough people have seen them that it was more of a ghost story then anything. Nobody could see his face, and no one would recognize him without him wanting them to. That meant he could use his PSI freely and nobody would know it was him! Of course, his mom thought he was going as a ghost, so he threw a sheet with eye holes on top. Good enough.

He went next door to Lucas’ apartment, and knocked on the door. Lucas answered, looking completely unlike himself. He was wearing a helmet of sorts that he insisted was a mask, a fake arm cannon that ammited light, a grey jacket, orange pants, and a belt with a pig nose on it. He held with real mechanical wings out awkwardly, and had a grim look of determination on the parts of his face that Ness could see. “Let’s go.” he said, in a firm but scared voice.

When they walked into Topalla Theatre, the world around them changed. Lucas screamed. Everything was black with neon lights. It was… familiar. Moonside? It seemed like everyone from this part of Eagleland was here. Rave music was playing, and there was a large refreshment table. And there was even a haunted house, where screams constantly came from. Ness was pretty sure this was the biggest party he’s ever been to, so why did it have to be in Moonside? HOW was it in Moonside? Ness didn’t know, but it sure was cool!

Lucas’ eyes were wide, and he was obviously apprehensive. “You’ve never been in a crowd this big before, have you?” Ness asked him.

“...No! I haven’t! I… I have to be strong.” Lucas straighted his posture. Ness was pretty sure he was dressed as his dead brother dressed as a military commander or whatever, but it did seem to give Lucas at least some confidence, even if it wasn’t much.

It didn’t take long for Ness to find Paula, and they started hanging out. Ness felt bad, but he ended up just abandoning Lucas. It wasn’t anything against Lucas, but Ness didn’t know when the next time he was going to get to see Paula was.

The party seemed to be going well, and Paula was being an okay level of violence. But, that’s when Lucas asked Ness to go through the haunted house with him.

At first Ness was surprised, having no clue why Lucas would even want to go through it. But he had a determined face, and Ness just couldn’t say no to it.

“No.” Paula said, and she proceeded to ignore Lucas, who had started crying.

“It’ll only take a moment, Paula.” Ness found himself saying. “You can stay here. It sounds like fun though. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Paula rolled her eyes but didn’t protest. “Don’t be long.” she said, and Ness took it as a threat, since most of the things she says are. Even with her princess costume on, she had clipped her frying pan onto her belt. Ness didn’t blame her, because he always had his strongest baseball bat in his backpack. He felt pretty vulnerable to be without it today, but it just didn’t work with the costume. But if he knew he was coming to Moonside, he would have grabbed it anyway.

So Ness and Lucas went into the haunted house, Lucas clinging to Ness’ arm like a little kid. Ness wasn’t that scared, but it seemed to mean a lot to Lucas. _He wants to be brave_ , Ness realized.

It was at first filled with lame fake ghosts and lights. A couple people in costume who chase you, but nothing scary. At the end of it was a door, and when they opened it, they were in a weird forest with foggers. Pretty typical. But the door slammed behind them, then disappeared. “ _Lucas_ ~” “ _Ness~”_ Their names were carried by the wind, like they were the wind themselves. Lucas seemed to be losing it, but Ness wasn’t worried. There’s got to be some reason for how they know their names.

They was the sound of running, and someone said “ _Lucas~, Ness~, look behind you~!”_ Ness looked behind him, and saw someone. There was no telling who, because of the smoke and the shadows. Lucas screamed, and grabbed Ness’ hand. They both started running. Ness wasn’t scared, because he knew it was fake, but he ran with him because it was fun. But somewhere along the lines he must’ve let go, because after a moment, he couldn’t see Lucas. He was just kind of lost in a dark forest.

“ _Ness! Ness~, have you forgotten about me~?”_ Creepy voice still, great. “ _I didn’t forget about you. You can’t hide your secret forever, you know that? You can’t. Everyone will know soon. In time._ ” Okay, so this was oddly personalized. Ness could see the silhouette of the person in one of the trees. Also, he was back in his normal outfit. He wasn’t sure when that happened, because he wasn’t paying attention. The person in the tree had left when Ness took his eyes off of them, and he was alone again.

He started walking around, calling out “Lucas!”, but didn’t hear a response. Man, this fog was thick! He wandered around, for what felt like forever, until someone ran towards him.

“ _Ness!_ ” It was Lucas! “ _Ness, I was so scared! I’m so glad I found you! Let’s get out of here, okay?”_ Something felt… off though. It wasn’t very Lucas-like to run around in the dark.

“Lucas, is that you?”

“ _Of course it is! Don’t you trust me?”_

Ness looked at Lucas, who was still in his costume, then looked at himself, who was not. “Lucas, take off the mask.”

“ _Why would you want me to do that?”_

“So I can see your face.”

“ _I can’t do that.”_

“Why not?”

“ _Because I don’t want to lose it!”_

Ness had expected him to say something about courage or Claus, but not about not wanting to lose it. “You’re not Lucas.”

“ _Why not?_ ”

“Because you don’t act like Lucas.”

“ _But you can be whatever you want on Halloween, right?”_

“That doesn’t make you Lucas. Now take the mask off.”  
“ _Nope!”_ And with that, the figure ran away, and the fog cleared up enough for Ness to see Lucas, who wasn’t far, sitting and crying.

“Lucas, Lucas, it’s okay.” He was still crying. “Lucas, what did I tell Paula before we left?”

“...T-that it’ll only take a moment…”

“That’s right. Now let’s get out of here.” And as if the place itself was listening, a door appeared. When they went through it, they came out the exit of the haunted house.

The only people there were Mana and that kid that Pokey looked like for a bit. Mana turned to Ness, wide-eyed.

“What took you so long in there?” she asked, a playful tone but a serious question.

“The forest. How did you do it?”

“Forest?” She looked confused. “Teddy, did you add a forest section?”

The other kid who was helping turned to face them. “No, why would I do that? I don’t understand how to do the rest of that Moonside crap, much less add a forest to a haunted house.”

“Well there you have it. So what did you think about the mirror room? Or the circus area? The spiders? I tried to appeal to just about every fear and phobia there is!”

Ness was definitely confused now. “So… there was no forest?”

“...No. Why would I do a forest? Wait! That’s a great idea for next year!” She took out a gold notebook covered in glitter and started writing in it. “As for you, I have no clue WHERE you went. So, was it fun?” Seemingly completely unconcerned about Ness’ teleportation, Mana continued to clean up her party like nothing happened. “By the way, the party ended hours ago and everyone went home. Here, I’ll send you back.” And with that, the world around Ness shifted, and they were back in the normal Topolla Theatre. Ness also noticed they were back in costume, though wasn’t sure when they changed.

Lucas looked at Ness with a terrified expression. “...How about… we just don’t talk about this. Ever.”

Ness nodded, and the two boys walked home together. But still, he couldn’t help but wonder. What happened back there? He decided he may never know the answer.

Late at night, as Ness was trying to fall asleep, he remembered something very important. He never got back to Paula! He quickly picked up the phone, and dialed her number.

“Hello?” Paula said, sounding tired.

“Hey Paula. Sorry I took so long earlier I-”

“NESS! YOU LEFT ME! YOU PROMISED YOU’D BE BACK AND YOU WEREN’T! YOU BIG LIAR!” Ness heard things breaking in the background. “I WILL COME TO YOUR HOUSE WHEN YOUR ASLEEP AND MURDER YOU! I WILL PAINT MY FACE IN YOUR BLOOD I WILL… Oh that’s okay Ness, accidents happen. Anyway, I have to go to bed, but we should meet up again soon, okay? By the way, what happened to my teddy bear that when to Summers. I haven’t seen her.”

“...She moved in with her family. She wants to live with them. You understand, right?”

“WHO COULD POSSIBLY BE A BETTER MOTHER THAN ME?! Of course I understand! I’d miss my family too! Well that’s okay. I’ll send her a letter later. Where does she live?”

“...She lives at… WHAT’S THAT MOM?” Ness shouted at the door, hoping Paula would buy it. “Oh, sorry I gotta go to bed. See you soon Paula, bye.” Ness hung up quickly. He needed to come up with some answer to that before he talks to Paula again. In his experience, she’s not going to drop it.

As Ness tried to fall asleep, the thoughts of the forest raced through his head. What happened then? Who was that? It was… it was… Ness fell asleep, right when he felt like he was about to reach an answer.


	12. Ness' Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody has a choice. And so does Ness.

Mana thought about what Ness said over and over. It wasn’t that rare for unexpected things to happen in Moonside, but someone would admit to it. At least to her. A forest? There were no forests in Moonside. Not in the slightest. And while one could appear, she should’ve been aware of it.

She brushed out her hair until it was straight. Why did hair have to be so annoying to deal with? She put on her make-up, and got dressed up. This was pretty pointless, and she knew it, but she wanted to look pretty. It was her RIGHT to look pretty, even if her face already looked perfect. She didn’t actually have to try. But she wanted to do things the normal way for once in her life. It made her seem more normal to others. She tried to focus on that.

But she just couldn’t! In her anger, she accidentally got lipstick all over her face. She groaned, and wiped it off. What was that forest? She didn’t cause it, nor did anyone else she knew! She re-applied her lipstick, this time more steadily. It looked like kind of a mess, but it cleaned itself up quickly. She threw the lipstick at the mirror, cracking it. She rolled her eyes and willed for it to be fixed. As the cracks disappeared, she thought she saw something reflected in the mirror, but only for a moment. She quickly turned around, but no one was there.

“Hello?” she called out, but unsurprisingly, got no response. She threw the lipstick back at the mirror, but the cracks were just cracks. “C’mon, show yourself!” She fixed it again, but didn’t see anything as the cracks closed. She couldn’t sense anything, either. “Giygas!” she called.

“What do you want? I’m busy!” Sounds like someone just woke up from a nap.

“Get over here for a moment.”

Ginten floated in there, in the same stupid human body, looking very annoyed. “This better be good.”

“What, did I take you away from your soaps?”

“My what?”

“Nevermind. I saw someone in the mirror.”

“You mean yourself?”

“No, someone else. When the mirror cracked, someone was there. But I don’t known who. Do you sense them?”

Ginten glared at her with his creepy pitch black eyes. “I was busy. You can handle this yourself.”

“Fine! Just go watch your Soap Operas! See if I care!” Mana pushed Ginten out of the room, and closed the door. “Are you sure you don’t want to come out? I have cookies!” Mana said to the empty room, waiting for a response.

 

~~~

 

Breakfast was uneventful. School was boring. Dinner was bland. Ness was in a constant cycle of uneventfulness. Nothing ever happened! It had been about a week since Halloween, and nothing ever happened!

Ness and Lucas were walking to school together, as usual, and neither of them said anything. That wasn’t unusual either. When they arrived at school, they sat on the bench, like usual, and proceeded to be silent, like usual.

They watched everyone go on, cheerfully talking amongst themselves. How could they be so happy? Ness wondered this as he sat, sulking, as usual.

What was also usual was Pokey trying to talk to Ness. But what was UNusual, is that he wasn’t taking no for an answer, whatsoever.

“Ness! Bestest friend! I want to show you something!” Pokey whined, for what must’ve been the millionth time.

Ness was getting sick and tired of this! Without thinking, he said “If I let you show me, will you leave me alone?”

“Bestest friend Ness! You talked to me! And fine, but you aren’t going to want me to when you see what I’ve been working on!”

Lucas, looking a little betrayed, pulled back a little. “You should just go.” he said dully to the ground.

Ness nodded. “Fine Pokey. Show me, then leave us alone.”

Pokey smiled widely, and Ness started feeling a little worried. They were leaving the campus, but Mr. Fassad nodded as they did. A limo was waiting outside, and a chauffeur opened the door for Ness and Pokey. The limo was large and full of things to do, but Ness just sat and moped. He was pretty sure the thing took flight, but he wasn’t going to give Pokey the satisfaction of a reaction. When they landed, they had arrived at Pokey’s tower, which was much taller now. “On the 39th floor.” Pokey said, getting out. Ness followed. He knew Pokey wouldn’t hurt him.

When they arrived at the 39th floor, Ness saw a door with several locks. Pokey unlocked all of them, and opened the door.

A variety of pictures was across the screen. Pictures from multiple places, multiple times, multiple angles. They were all dated, and none of them were more than a couple months old. But all of them had something just barely visible…

“Claus?” Ness burst out, forgetting his grudge.

Pokey nodded. “Claus. And I found him.”

“How? Where?”

Pokey smiled. “I’ll tell you… if you make a certain agreement with me.”

Ness’ stomach dropped. An agreement with Pokey? He wasn’t so sure that was smart. But… “What kind of agreement?”

“I help you find Claus, and you move in here with me. Deal?”

“...Find him? Isn’t he dead? And move in with you? No way!”

“Of course he is. But he’s also persistent. The little squirt should have died a long time ago, but he never did. Even when he did die, he never REALLY died. So why should we believe it’s any different now? Don’t you want to save your friend?”

Ness’ mind raced with possibilities. Pokey was… unfortunately very powerful. He could do whatever he wanted, help whoever he wanted, and hurt whoever he wanted. If Ness said no, he may never see Claus again, as he expected. He could just go on with his bland life like nothing happened, never having to deal with Pokey again. But if he said yes…

If he said yes he’d end up wrapped up in Pokey’s drama forever. If he said yes he’d end up getting his hopes up for something that was probably never going to happen. If he said yes he’d end up being distant from everyone around him. If he said yes he may end up becoming Pokey’s ‘bestest friend’ unwillingly. If he said yes… he’d never be normal again. If he said yes, Claus could come back, alive and well, and Ness wouldn’t be so alone.

“...How long would I have to live with you?”

“A year. But you can live here longer if you want! I promise you, I can make you immortal, and we can live together for all eternity if you want. But that’s not part of the deal. And you could still see your ‘friends’ and ‘family’ as much as you want. This would just be where you live. You won’t be a prisoner here.”

Ness thought about the options. If Ness were to say yes, Ness would have to live with Pokey for a year. If Ness said no, he could forget about Claus and Pokey forever and never get mixed up with any of their drama again. He couldn’t exactly face Lucas, but Pokey would probably cause such a spectacle that Ness’ mom would have them move again. He could restart. Again. And maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing…

“Before you make your choice…” Pokey butted in, breaking Ness’ train of thought. “I won’t stop you from seeing your friends or anything. Any of them. Those other three with you? You can talk to them all you want. Like I said, you can do whatever you want. Use PSI in public? Sure. I don’t care. As long as you live here with me bestest friend.”

Ness didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say, or what to choose. He didn’t know which choice was the right one. Pokey was offering freedom, but he couldn’t trust Pokey! He couldn’t...

“Well, you don’t have to make your choice today. You can get back to me on it. Believe me, I have all the time in eternity, plus more. But just know, I won’t try to put him back together until you make your choice. Just let me know when you’re ready.”

So Pokey was taking the patient approach. Smart. Ness decided he would take some time to think it over. The two took the floating limo back to the school, and Ness allowed himself to have just a little fun. In fact, he smiled. He smiled big, and laughed. It felt like a heavy weight had been lifted off of his shoulders for the first time in a month… no. For the first time since they moved to Fourside. With Pokey, could he really be free?

They arrived back at school, and Mr. Fassad wasn’t angry that they were late. In fact, he was treating Ness with a little bit of respect, something he didn’t do for anyone. Ness sat at his desk, in between Lloyd and Lucas. Lucas had been sitting at Claus’ desk since he transferred into the class. Ness looked at how sad Lucas looked, his eyes puffy from always crying, sitting at his dead brother’s desk pretending to have courage. Ness wanted to help him. He really did. But making a deal with Pokey was like making a deal with the devil, except one was more crafty, powerful, showy, and kiddish.

The day went by, and everything had a new sense of color to it. A new since of hope. Ness didn’t want to get his hopes up, because he knew it couldn’t be guaranteed, but… that chance… that glimmer of hope that maybe everything will be alright… Ness lived for that hope. He always has, and he always will. This wouldn’t be the first time he’s overcome extremely bad odds to come out on top. He was about to force the memories of his adventure out of his head but… why? Why should he? It was HIS adventure, and he didn’t want to give it up for anything! And Claus wouldn’t have wanted him to either. So why would he? Why SHOULD he? He’d relive his memories as many times as he wants until the day he dies, and there’s NOTHING anyone, not even Ness himself, could do about it. So what’s the point in denying it? There wasn’t one.

Ness sighed. He feared he had already made his choice. He laid in bed, looking at the ceiling, and started wondering what life would be like living with Pokey.

“ _Ness~...”_

Ness woke up suddenly, in the forest he was in during the haunted house.

“ _Ness~... You haven’t forgotten, have you?”_

Ness turned around, the face the origin of the voice. Claus stood there, smiling. The world shifted, and they were in a small village.

“ _Ness~ Ness~, you finally joined me~...”_

He looked young, like he was ten. But that wasn’t what stood out most. In his t-shirt and shorts, he looked completely normal. His two bright radioactive-green eyes shone with a life Ness had never seen before. His skin, pale, but real. All real. No metal or wires. No excessive injuries. He had the same smile though, the one that screamed life, even when life was something he lacked. But not this time.

“ _Ness! Let’s play! Let’s play together! I want to play while I’m still REAL! While I’m still me!”_

“Claus?” Claus smiled at him, giving him that look that hinted towards slight mischief. “Claus, what choice should I make?”

Claus gave him a sideways glance, his smile faltering, but then returning with a new sense of mischief. “ _Isn’t that a choice YOU should make? I’m dead, so I obviously made a wrong decision SOMEWHERE along the lines._ Claus laughed a real, life-like laugh. He was so light and airy, so real. “ _Yes Ness, I am real. I thought we established this! Now wake up! Wake up so we can play!”_

Ness burst up, awake and in full alert, in his bedroom. He checked the clock. He’s been asleep for a couple hours. But there was no going back to bed now. He had a choice to make. And he was going to make it.

 

~~~

 

Mana had broken sixty-six mirrors beyond simple repair. She COULD repair them, but she’d rather break more.

Teddy walked in the room. “Mana, you’ve been in here for days breaking and fixing mirrors. Ever heard of bad luck?”

“I’m above bad luck! And I want to know what happened!”

“Ginten wants you. And I think he also wants you to stop buying more mirrors. It’s weird.”

Mana sighed, and, with a flip of her long silky hair, left the dressing room to go see Love Interest Number One. “Yes, Giygas?”

He floated lazily above his chair, obviously not bothered to learn the proper way to sit in it. “Mana, this has gone too far. I have work you need to do. We need to find that Onyx Hook, and you’re the only one who can sense dimensional disturbances like that. So stop throwing lipstick at mirrors!”

“Yeah, but Magicant makes me want to puke!” Mana shouted, getting rewarded with a glare by Ginten.

“I don’t care if it makes you want to puke, I-”

Mana cut him off. “Oh yeah, I forgot your Mother or whatever created it. What was her name again? Maria?”

Ginten forced every ounce of logic he possibly could into Mana’s head, causing her to fall backwards and scream. She was obviously going through a great deal of pain, but Ginten didn’t stop. He continuously forced logic and reason onto her, and every bit of positivity he could manage.

Teddy stood there awkwardly, unaware of what he should do. The mind control Ginten had him under prevented him from directly stopping Ginten from doing anything, and forced him to do whatever he wanted him to. It was a loose mind control, however, since Teddy was strong-willed, and Ginten did give him the freedom of human emotions and thoughts so he could have an intellectual who could think and have ideas and survival instincts instead of just a stiff robotic person. Who would want someone who can’t think for themselves?

Teddy decided to go get a soda. When he came back, Ginten was still at it, so Teddy popped a burrito in the microwave. He ate his snack, and when the screaming finally stopped, he returned to the others.

Mana was hyperventilating on the ground, and Ginten was standing over her with a merciless expression.

“As I was saying, you will rest your powers, then you will talk to Teddy about the areas of suspicion for where the Onyx Hook could be. You will spend time in each of them, until you find the source of the dimensional disturbances you’ve been sensing for months now. You will tell me where the source is, and I will handle it from there. Do you understand?”

Mana, who was still hyperventilating, nodded.

“Then go.”

Mana nodded again, then disappeared into the air around her. Teddy figured she went to Moonside. Everyone loves her in Moonside, and it’s the most nonsensical place there is. Teddy sighed. “Did you have to be so hard on her?”

“Yes.” Ginten didn’t say anything more than that, then returned to his reading.

Teddy rolled his eyes. When it came to Ginten’s past, the word “restraint” was not really in his alien to human dictionary.

“You know she’s not very useful to you if she’s crying in pain. She’s not going to be useful for a while until she gets her energy back.”

Ginten swiveled around in the swivel chair he wasn’t actually sitting in to face Teddy. “I know what I’m doing. I don’t need your opinion. Go back to listening out for clues about the Onyx Hook to narrow down Mana’s search. The less time it takes to find it, the better.”

“It’d take less time if she wasn’t out of commission right now.” Teddy said sarcastically.

Ginten psychically pushed Teddy against a wall. Hard. “Keep that up and you’ll be the next one ‘out of commission’. Now do your job!”

Teddy left, thinking better of giving Ginten more sarcastic remarks. He was just going to do his job, and not argue anymore before his luck runs out.

 

~~~

 

It was like 4 am in the morning. Ness had ran all the way towards Pokey’s tower. He banged on the door. “ **Password.** ” it said in a robotic voice.

“Umm… Ness is cool?”

“ **Correct! Please go inside. Master Porky’s life signs are currently located on the 40th floor.** ”

Ness walked through the weird talking door, and went up the elevator. Other than the regular “Next stop, 100th floor.”, it didn’t argue with him. Ness knew he’s seen a lot when he was relieved the elevator didn’t argue with him.

He made it to the 40th floor without incident, and started looking around. It was basically the same thing that was on the 20th floor in the past. Ness opened a door, and it led to a hallway. He found the room labelled “King P’s Bedroom”, and went inside.

Pokey was fast asleep in a pig-shaped bed. Pig decorations were everywhere, and it looked like the room of a five year old.

“Pokey.” Ness said, and Pokey stayed fast asleep, so Ness shouted it louder and louder, shaking Pokey awake. When Pokey finally woke up, looking tired and like he was about to complain, Ness said “I made my choice.”

Pokey opened his eyes wider, and didn’t look at all tired anymore. “You… have?”

“Yes. I’ve chosen to take you up on your offer, under one condition.”

“And what’s that?”

“Don’t tell Lucas what we’re trying to do until we succeed. I don’t want to get his hopes up for more disappointment.”

Pokey smiled, and hugged Ness. “Oh bestest friend Ness, I’m so glad you made the right choice! We’re going to have so much fun together, you know that?”

“I want to focus on bring Claus back to life first. How do we start?”

“C’mon, this way!”

The two boys went down the elevator to the 39th floor, and Pokey opened the door. Inside were all of the pictures, and Lloyd came in through a door, but somehow Ness expected he’d be here. “...Ness? Did you make a choice?” So, apparently he knew the choice Ness had to make.

“Yeah. I chose to resurrect Claus. And I suppose your here because Pokey has no clue what he’s doing?”

“...He’s a lot smarter than you think Ness. But yes, I’m here to help. Now, I want to try to make him more natural, I really do, but replacing some of his mechanical parts with human ones may have… undesirable effects.”

“Where exactly do you plan on getting these human parts?” Ness asked, afraid of the answer.

“From people brought here through time travel. There are some people who break from it, and some of them are here. We would take parts from them. The only problem is, adding new, more natural parts, could mess him up more. I have no clue what the effect could be, and it could lead to permanent nerve damage so that he could never be able to use whatever I replace again, even if I return it to its original mechanical state. I fear that I may completely destroy the little spark of life that remains inside of him. I believe it would be better to leave him as is.”

Ness nodded. “Okay, leave him as he is then. Just, can you make it more comfortable, at least? Less military?”

Lloyd looked at Ness curiously. “More comfortable, you say?”

“Yeah, like easier to live in. Something not as… monstrous?”

Lloyd sat in silent thought for a moment. Then, like a lightning bolt went through him, he got a surprised look. He had an idea. He ran over to a table where there was a notebook, where he started furiously writing things down, muttering to himself. Pokey had a smug look, like he knew exactly what was happening, while Ness was confused. Then, still muttering to himself, Lloyd started picking things up, and moving them around. He ran in and out of doors, grabbing things, writing things, making plans. He went in the elevator and came back with boxes full of supplies.

“What’s he doing?” Ness asked Pokey, who seemed unsurprised.

“He had an idea. He does this when he has an idea.” Pokey said, and Ness went back to watching Lloyd work.

He wasn’t saying anything to anyone, just muttering. He put things together, took them apart, creating and destroying. That’s when he finally remembered that he wasn’t alone.

“If you guys want to go discuss the plan of helping Claus, I’ll be here trying to work on some improvements for Claus’ body.” Lloyd turned back to his work, and Pokey dragged Ness to another room.

“Scientist does this sometimes. You’ll get used to it while you’re here. Anyway, to find Claus, we’ve just got to catch him next time we see him. That’s all there is to it.”

“And how do we do that?” Ness asked, feeling a little suspicious of the simplicity of the plan.

“It may be simple, but it will work.” Pokey said, making Ness question if he said anything about his suspicions out loud. He didn’t REMEMBER saying it out loud… “Next time you see him, press this button.” Pokey handed Ness a controller. “If he really is there, he’ll be teleported to a containment unit, where Lloyd can handle the rest. Me and Lloyd also have these controllers, so someone’s bound to find him.”

“Is it going to be painful?” Ness asked, worried for his friend’s safety.

“Painful? He probably died and you’re worried that resurrecting the dead is going to be painful? Of course it is! But he’ll be fine soon.”

Ness was uncomfortable with this, but he did want to see his friend alive again.

“You know how much pain he’s already been through, right?” Pokey cut in. “He’s an unnatural amalgamation of himself and a robot, not even considered human anymore. He’s the commander of a world-dominating army, and my personal slave. His mother died saving him, and he couldn’t even find the strength to successfully avenge her, and that’s why he’s in the position he’s in now.”

“WAS!” Ness shouted, so loud Pokey flinched back. “WAS WAS WAS WAS WAS! WE AREN’T RESURRECTING HIM JUST SO HE CAN BE YOUR SLAVE AGAIN! HE WILL BE FREE FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE, AND YOU AREN’T GOING TO HURT HIM ANYMORE!” Ness picked Pokey up by the collar of his shirt, and shouted in his face. “PROMISE ME! PROMISE ME YOU WON’T HURT HIM ANYMORE!”

Pokey, who look terrified, nodded.

“SAY IT! SAY THAT YOU PROMISE!”

“...I promise.” Pokey whispered, and Ness dropped him.

“Now remember…” Ness said, after Pokey hit the floor with a thud. “If you don’t keep that promise… there are worse things than death.”

 

~~~

 

Mana watched the whole scene play out. The negative energy from Ness’ fear, stress and anger was enough to keep her okay for now. So they think they can resurrect Clausy, huh? She didn’t think so. Not like that. They needed his body. SHE needed his body… not in a weird way. She could fix him herself, given his corpse and the chance. Science can’t fix everything in this world. Sometimes it just needs a touch of PSI… and a little chaos never hurt either. She could find him, easily. She just needed to buy some time before doing all of that Magicant crap for Giygas. Hehehehehehe! This was going to be fun!

 

~~~

 

Ness took a limo back home, and started packing his things. He didn’t exactly know how to explain this to his mom, though. Pokey had given him some suitcases, which Ness needed, as he had a lot of things he wanted to bring with him. Pokey said he could also come back for stuff, but Ness didn’t want to take any chances. He picked up the key to the house he owned in Onett. Memories of plans and empty promises filled his head. He carefully put it in a small box and put it in a suitcase. He took his photo album and carefully wrapped it up in some newspapers. He didn’t want anything to happen to it. He put that in his suitcase too. And all of his other, less emotional stuff, but listing all of that would create a VERY long paragraph that nobody wants to read, so let’s just say he packed everything.

As he was walking out to get the robot army Pokey had up to carry Ness’ things, (There really were like ten robots there just for carrying stuff. Pokey had insisted on more, but Ness didn’t want to cause a scene.)  Ninten saw him. “Leaving so soon?” he asked, and Ness wondered how Ninten could POSSIBLY know what he was doing.

“...What do you mean, Ninten?”

Ninten gave Ness a look that spoke for itself. It was obvious they both knew what Ninten meant.

“...Look, I didn’t have a choice…”

“You did.” Ninten’s voice was serious, and felt like ice on impact.

“...Well what else was I supposed to do? Let my friend die?”

“I’m not discrediting your choice. Not at all.” Ninten said. The words should have had a happy tone to them, but they didn’t. They were just straight forward. “I’m simply saying that you had one. And you still do. Remember that. Whatever happened either way would have been because of you and you alone. You chose to live with Pokey and resurrect Claus. That wasn’t the wrong choice, but it wasn’t the correct one. It was simply a choice.”

Ninten’s voice was still, more still than it had ever been.

“The choice you made will have consequences. And so will the choice you didn’t make. You can back out now. You can back out later. Or you can see it through until the end. It’s your choice. It has been, and it will be. Goodnight Ness.”

Ninten grabbed his journal and went into Ness’ room. Ness didn’t move. Not at all. He stood there, lost in thought about his choice. He did have a choice, didn’t he? He always has. It was his choice to listen to his mom and live normally like this that led him to this very point. He could have left at any time. He could’ve teleported away a long time ago. Could’ve gone anywhere he wanted, and he would’ve been just fine, living off of his father’s fortune. But he had chosen to stay. He chose to live here, like Just an Everyday Psychic Kid. That was his choice. Did he make the right one? No. But he didn’t make the wrong one either. He had a choice, even now, and he could make it if he wanted to. He could do anything he wanted. Anything at all.

 

...Anything at all…

 

That was Ness’ choice…

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


That was Ness’ choice.


End file.
